interchange of US 70 and US 75 in Durant. Business owners say that these bottlenecks must be eliminated for these transportation corridors if the area were to remain a competitive location to attract and retain its major distribution centers.
Computer and Electronics Equipment The region’s computer and electronic equipment cluster focuses primarily around Texas Instruments (TI) in Sherman, and two related companies—MEMC Southwest and Globitech. The region employed 1,927 workers in 2005, and those three companies employed roughly 1,400 of those workers Texas Instruments started its Shermanbased operations in 1965 and designs, tests, and produces semiconductors. TI currently employs approximately 750 people to do semiconductor design, testing, and production. MEMC Southwest employs about 500 people to manufacture silicon wafers. The firm was started as a joint venture with Texas Instruments in 1995, and began actual operations in 1997. Globitech is the smallest of these firms, employing 120 workers. Globitech is a foundry for creating the silicon used for wafers. The linkages among these firms provide an excellent example of a cluster. The three companies represent nearly three-quarters of total employment in the region’s computer and electronic equipment cluster. Although the cluster has seen significant employment declines, many of the jobs that remain are very high-value added activities. More so than many other clusters, these firms compete and operate in truly global markets. Given competition with facilities worldwide, these activities face significant cost pressures. For instance, the TI facility is expected to reduce its production costs five percent annually. Between 1990 and 1995, Texas Instruments shed many of the divisions that were doing anything outside of the company’s core competency. Even more jobs were shed during the first half of this decade as the semiconductor market declined as part of the tech bubble bursting. While the market for semiconductors has improved since 2001, it is still not regained pre-2000 levels, and production capacity still outweighs market demand. In the silicon market, there has been growing demand for use in the construction of photovoltaic cells used for solar panels, which has helped the industry find new market opportunities. Yet, future employment is not expected to grow significantly because these plants are under continuous cost pressures and investments in technology have dramatically increased productivity. Workers in the computer and electronics industry cluster tend to earn above average wages and the jobs demand above average educational attainment. The average annual earnings in the cluster’s 20 largest occupations in the cluster were $47,500. A majority of the most common occupations require post-secondary education as minimum education and training requirements. The most in-demand occupations are computer software systems and applications engineers, as well as electrical engineers and technicians. These most highly sought occupations require knowledge and skills in Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness
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