Heavy metal is back: Houston No. 1 for manufacturing

HOUSTON – Houston ranks No. 1 on Forbes’ list of the best cities for manufacturing jobs. It has seen 20.8 percent growth in the sector over the past ten years, 10.1 percent growth over the past five years, 3.2 percent growth over the past two years and 1.8 percent growth in the past year.

Houston is one of only four regions that enjoyed net job growth in manufacturing in the past ten years.

San Antonio ranks No. 4 on the list with 9.5 percent ten-year growth, 11 percent five-year growth, 9.3 percent two-year growth and 5.2 percent one-year growth. Dallas ranks No. 15.

Overall, Texas now has 50 percent more jobs than in 1990, compared to growth of only 6 percent in New York, 8 percent in Illinois and 14 percent in California.

The oil and gas sector — which accounts for just 2.3 percent of the Texas workforce — created 37,000 new jobs in the state in 2011.

Milwaukee, Wis.; Seattle, Wash.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Detroit, Mich.; Kansas City, Mo.; Hartford, Conn.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Oklahoma City, Okla. also made the top ten on Forbes’ manufacturing-jobs list.

Read more at Forbes.com and the Houston Business Journal.