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Workforce Report Card

The Gulf Coast Workforce Board and its operating affiliate Workforce Solutions are the public workforce system in the 13-county Houston-Galveston region. We help employers meet their human resource needs and individuals build careers, so both can compete in the global economy.

With participation from the region's chief local elected officials, the Workforce Board sets the strategic direction for the regional workforce system and guides the area's workforce agenda focusing on four key results:

  • competitive employers
  • an educated workforce
  • more and better jobs, and
  • higher incomes.

In February 2005, the Board produced the first Report Card as a tool to gauge the region's competitiveness in relation to similar metropolitan areas across the United States. Since then, the Board has produced four subsequent updates. The most recent Report Card (2015) also measures how the Houston-Galveston region fits into the larger global economy.

An in-depth look at several indicator measures that contribute to the overall prosperity of our region established that the Houston-Galveston region of Texas ranks highly in terms of economic performance and is competitive on labor force composition and quality of life, however educational achievement remains an issue.

A great place to do business, work & live.

2019 Workforce Report Card

The Gulf Coast Workforce Board and its operating affiliate Workforce Solutions together are the public workforce system in the 13-county Houston-Galveston region. In everything that we do, we seek to assure the Gulf Coast region remains a great place to do business, work and live.

In February 2005, the Board produced the first Workforce Report Card as a tool to gauge the region's competitiveness in relation to similar metropolitan areas across the United States. In this seventh edition, we examine key indicator data and then offer several issues for consideration in context of the future of work.

Gulf Coast Indicator Spotlights

Areas of progress since the last Report Card

Since our last Workforce Report Card in 2015, we have experienced ups and downs in the regional economy. The Great Recession and its local aftereffects have largely faded. And, the shale oil “boom” powered up Houston’s economy until late-2014 when oil prices collapsed. Nonetheless, the Region showed improvement on several indicators since 2015 as noted below.

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2019 Report Card

Real Medium Household