The Big Picture
Corpus Christi Employment Change by
Industry, 2012-13
Corpus Christi Employment Change by Industry, 2012-13
Government
Other Services (except Public Admin)
Accommodation & Food Services
Arts & Recreation
Health Care & Social Assistance
Educational Services (Private)
Administrative & Support
Management of Businesses
Professional & Scientific Services
Real Estate & Rental
Finance & Insurance
Information
Transportation & Warehousing
Retail Trade
Wholesale Trade
Manufacturing
Construction
Utilities
Mining
Agriculture
-25%
-20%
-15%
-10%
-5%
0%
5%
SOURCE: Texas Workforce Commission.
10%
15%
20%
Corpus Christi is not simply adding jobs,
but high-paying jobs. Jobs in oil and gas
extraction and business services that are
expanding at record pace also pay more
relative to other industries. An increasingly
tighter regional labor market has driven
up overall wages. Despite a retreat in job
growth, average wage earnings in Corpus
Christi rose 6.6 percent in 2013, after about
4 percent gains in the previous two years.
Recent growth in local wage earnings was
more than twice of those at the state and
national levels.
Wage Earnings Per Employee, % Change
Wage Earnings Per Employee, % Change
8%
Corpus Christi
Texas
U.S.
6.6%
6%
4%
4.4%
4.2%
3.6%
2%
1.0%
0%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
-2%
-4%
-3.4%
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Growth in employment and income
stimulates household spending. Since the
beginning of 2011, the volume of business
sales in the metro area has continued to
expand on a year-over-year basis, particularly during the fourth quarter that
includes the holiday season.
Corpus Christi Business Sales
Corpus Christi Business Sales
Volume, $mil (left scale)
Y-o-Y % Change (right scale)
20,000
18,000
100%
80%
16,000
60%
14,000
40%
12,000
10,000
20%
8,000
0%
6,000
-20%
4,000
-40%
2,000
0
-60%
2008
2009
2010
2011
SOURCE: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
|
2012
2013
Region in Transformation
Corpus Christi is in the midst of a construction boom that promises to transform
the future landscape of South Texas’s
economy. With a whopping 15 percent
employment growth in its construction
sector, Corpus Christi added the most construction jobs among all Texas metro areas
in 2013. According to the Associated General Contractors of America, Corpus Christi
added a total of 3,800 new construction
jobs in 2013. Those jobs were responsible
for more than two thirds of the total
employment gain in the metro area.
The U.S. as a whole is also witnessing an
uptick in construction. What distinguishes
Corpus Christi from the rest of the nation is
industrial construction. More than a dozen
industrial facilities with capital investment
together in excess of $20 billion were announced within the past two years. TPCO
America, a Chinese-owned company,
broke ground on its $1 billion steel pipe
plant in the city of Gregory in early 2012.
Almost overnight, South Texas became a
mecca for foreign investment. That largest
overseas capital project for China to date
was soon followed by the Italian M&G
Group, which announced the construction of a plastics plant at $1 billion near
Port of Corpus Christi; and an Austrian
company Voestalpine, which announced
the construction of a $700 million iron
ore processing plant near La Quinta Ship
Channel. Among others, the influx of
foreign capital investment has been driven
by the competitive business environment
in Texas, the advantage of a deep-sea port,
and the proximity to an abundant supply
of natural gas at low prices.
With soaring oil and gas production
in the Eagle Ford, an increasing number
of industrial leaders have announced
plans to expand their current refinery and
storage facilities alongside Port of Corpus
Christi, or developing new ones. By July
2013, increasing shipments of crude oil
and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to other
parts of the U.S. and the rest of the world
had made the port a net exporter for the
first time in history.
Strong Housing Market
Home construction is also soaring. In
contrast to industrial construction, rises
in home building activity are a nation-
Annual Review of the South Texas Economy – 2014 Edition
wide phenomenon. Historic low interest
rates are keeping financing costs at very
affordable levels. New home starts in
some Coastal Bend communities have
approached their levels set in 2008, which
marked the end of the last housing boom.
Despite increasing home starts across the
U.S., homeownership has yet to budge. In
fact, after reaching at nearly 70 percent
during the housing boom between 2005
and 2007, the nationwide homeownership rate inched down steadily over time
to about 65 percent in 2013. Likewise, the
share of owner-occupied housing units in
the City of Corpus Christi declined from 54
percent in 2008 to 52 percent in 2012. The
share of renter-occupied units rose correspondingly from 33 percent to 38 percent.
Rather than homeowners, investors have
been driving much of new home construction activity since 2011.
Corpus Christi Single-Family Home
Starts
Corpus Christi Single-Family Home Starts
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
SOURCE: Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
With rising demand outstripping the
number of newly built homes in the Coastal Bend, home prices are on the rise. The
median home price for the City of Corpus
Christi appreciated more than 7 percent in
2013. The level of inventory in the market
has reduced to below five months, about
half of that five years ago. This means that
now it will take only half of the time for the
area to sell all houses up for sale on the
local market.