B
ecause specialization can potentially bolster a region’s economic growth, the concept of industry clusters has
gained popularity among regional development policy makers. According to the Texas Workforce Commission
(2005), an industry cluster is “a concentration of businesses and industries in a geographic region that are
interconnected by the markets they serve, the products they produce, and so on.” In some cases, an industry cluster
is equivalent to an industry or broad economic sector. In other cases, it is a mix of businesses in different industry
but linked by similar customers, suppliers or workforce.
The location quotient and shift-share data suggest that
the Coastal Bend economy is driven by the following five
private industry clusters: oil and gas, construction, industrial
manufacturing, health care, and hospitality. All but industrial
manufacturing are major regional industries in terms of
employment. Industrial manufacturing, on the other hand, is
currently relatively small by employment but it is projected
to be the fastest growing sector in the region as a result of
a large number of industrial plants under development or
expansion. Along with major expansion of nearly all existing oil
and gas refinery facilities, an unprecedented number of largescale industrial sites are under construction in Corpus Christi,
including steel plants by TPCO and Voestalpine, petrochemical
plants by M&G Group, Cheniere Energy, and Trafigura. Those
facilities are expected to be fully developed by 2018, substantially
boosting the size of the manufacturing sector.
statistical patterns are apparently similar. In particular, their
shares of industrial manufacturing employment in 2013 remained
below the state or national benchmark, but they are expected
to increase significantly through 2018. Nevertheless, industrial
manufacturing has already been playing a significant role in San
Patricio County. With much of industrial activity located along
the north side of Corpus Christi Bay, San Patricio County has the
highest concentration of industrial manufacturing employment.
Oil and Gas Employment
One Size Fits All
While those five industry clusters are representative of the Coastal
Bend as a whole, do they also capture the economic landscape
of the region’s 12 individual counties? The accompanying table
shows employment in each of the five clusters as a share of county
employment. For comparison, the bottom two rows show the
corresponding statistics for Texas and the U.S. Above the state
and national benchmarks are data for Corpus Christi and the
Coastal Bend as a whole. The shaded areas highlight the county
employment shares of the specific industry clusters that are
relatively higher than those for the state and the nation.
INDU STRY CLU
In comparison with the state and the U.S. as a whole, the share
of oil and gas employment is relative higher among all Coastal
Bend counties except Kleberg. Employment in the health care
cluster is relatively more concentrated in five of the 12 counties.
Four counties, namely Duval, Nueces, Refugio and San Patricio,
have a relatively high concentration in construction employment.
Reflecting the dominant role of tourism in the Corpus Christi
metro area, all its three counties have relatively high employment
in hospitality, which includes accommodation, eating and drinking
places, and recreational and entertainment facilities.
Given that the Corpus Christi metro area accounts for more
than two-thirds (76%) of all jobs in the Coastal Bend, their
STERS
The table shows that the employment share of the five industry
clusters combined is around 50 percent for the majority of the
Coastal Bend counties. Those employment shares are about 15
percent larger than the nationwide average. In particular, the oil
and gas sector dominates employment in most counties. The health
care sector also appears to be a major employer among many
communities in the Coastal Bend. The concentration of oil and gas
related employment also explains the exceptionally greater impact of
the current shale oil boom on communities in the Coastal Bend than
in other regions.
Employment Shares by Industry Clusters, 2013
Oil & Gas
Aransas
Bee
Brooks
Duval
Jim Wells
Kenedy
Kleberg
Live Oak
McMullen
Nueces
Refugio
San Patricio
Corpus Christi
Coastal Bend
Texas
U.S.
Construction
Industrial
Manufacturing
Health Care
Hospitality
Total
Share
7.1%
8.3%
10.7%
21.2%
25.9%
48.1%
3.1%
30.5%
32.6%
4.9%
18.7%
6.4%
5.1%
7.9%
3.7%
1.6%
5.5%
2.8%
3.5%
13.9%
2.1%
0.0%
2.8%
3.2%
0.0%
9.0%
8.1%
18.3%
9.8%
8.3%
5.6%
4.3%
0.7%
1.7%
0.3%
0.6%
2.7%
0.0%
1.4%
5.2%
0.0%
3.7%
0.6%
8.0%
4.0%
3.5%
6.0%
6.9%
8.1%
13.1%
12.5%
5.5%
18.6%
1.7%
16.8%
3.7%
2.1%
15.6%
6.3%
6.6%
14.5%
14.4%
10.6%
11.7%
22.9%
10.7%
11.4%
3.6%
8.0%
7.7%
11.1%
11.5%
10.3%
13.7%
11.7%
12.0%
13.9%
12.8%
11.3%
11.5%
44.2%
36.5%
38.5%
44.9%
57.3%
57.5%
35.3%
54.0%
45.0%
46.9%
45.3%
51.3%
47.3%
47.0%
37.3%
36.0%
Sources: Texas Workforce Commission, and Bureau of Labor Statistics
Review of South Texas Business Conditions
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