FRIDAY, May 3, 2013
TEMPLE DAILY TELEGRAM / 1
A Booming Population: What Does That Mean to the Central Texas Workforce?
MAY•2013 EVENTS CALENDAR 7 Business Link Lunch - Temple Mall, 12PM 7 Downtown Temple Alliance Committee Meeting, 3PM 8 Business Networking Breakfast - Temple College, 7AM 8 RCA Committee Meeting, 12PM 14 Leadership Temple Graduation, 6PM 15 Education Workforce Committee Meeting, 8AM 23 Business After Hours - First State Bank Central Texas, 5PM
By: Melissa Davis, Charter Real Estate Community members were treated to an in depth look at Texas demographics last week when the Chamber of Commerce hosted Lloyd Potter, Texas State Demographer at their legislative luncheon. Mr. Potter, who also serves as the Director of Texas State Data Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio, presented a myriad of data related to population growth, education trends as well as racial and ethnic composition. Texas is the second largest and most populated state. Its growth exceeded that of all other states between 2000 and 2010. Texas’ growth can be attributed to both natural increase and net migration. A total of eight Texas counties were among the top largest growth counties in the country. The most populated counties in the state are Harris, Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant and Travis; leaving Central Texas at the center of this exponential growth. Texas had eight of the nation’s fastest growing large cities according to the
booming, with the state adding over 1.62 million net new jobs in the last decade. Texas employs over 12.6 million workers and has the nation’s second highest civilian labor force. At the beginning of 2012, Texas was the only top 20 state with more jobs than three years ago. In 2011 alone, Texas ranked first in total employment growth by jobs gained with 310,900. (Source: US Bureau of Labor and Statistics) The composition of this increase in population is as important as the growth itself. According to Potter, Hispanics are on pace to become the
biggest ethnic group in Texas by 2015. The 2010 Census estimated that 38% of the Texas population was of Hispanic descent, 11% were nonHispanic African American and approximately 6% were nonHispanic other (mostly of Asian descent). 27% of the Bell County population is Hispanic with the other numbers closely mirroring those of the state. Sadly, Texas ranks low in percentages of perDr. Lloyd Potter, State Demographer, during his presentation at the Hilton Garden Inn on April 23. This was part of the re- sons aged 25 years and vamped series of luncheons organized by the Temple Chamber of older with less than a Commerce Legislative Affairs Committee. high school diploma or most recent census data. Round Rock equivalency, at 81% of the population. led with the No. 2 national ranking Of those with less than high school and a 4.8% growth, followed by Austin education, 71% were Hispanic. Texas will need to ensure that this demoat No. 3. Job growth in Texas has also been graphic finishes their high school
Attendees for the Demographer presentation exceeded 150 guests, nearly twice that of the largest attendance from Legislative Luncheons in recent years.
education and moves on toward college at a higher rate than prior generations. The alternative is a rapidly growing, unskilled workforce with higher poverty and unemployment rates, according to Potter. Texas Workforce Commission has specific programs in place to provide residents with job-training. In an effort to graduate a more prepared workforce and give students opportunities to learn a trade prior to graduation, area schools are offering more career focused curriculums that allow students to graduate with specific certifications in place so they are prepared to enter the workforce upon graduation. Temple ISD plans to implement a specific bilingual program to assure compliance with performance based monitoring and analysis systems. Retention and decreased dropout rates are another large component of TISD’s District Improvement Plan, available on the TISD website. In essence, our state’s rapid growth can be a genuine benefit to our workforce but the challenges of training and supporting a rapidly growing population will be challenging test for area leadership over the coming decade.