Above-Average Population Growth Bolsters Local Recruitment Efforts

As the city’s population continues to grow on the back of the booming energy sector, some San Angelo professional fields are seeing workforce demands increase to meet the needs of a growing populace.

San Angelo Chamber of Commerce President Phil Neighbors has heard reports of increased demand primarily in the healthcare and education industries, but also mentions that local welding and trucking companies are having to work to compete with the energy giants that have brought many of the new settlers to the area.

“We have continued to hear that there is a real demand for healthcare, that they are having to recruit harder and be very competitive with wages and benefits,” he said. “Job growth in the production workers has been especially strong in the welders, truck drivers…and that has impacted those same positions in companies here, in San Angelo. There’s a real demand for someone who has experience and skills in those areas in particular.”

Growth has been sporadic, both population and job-wise, Neighbors said, noting shifts in the types of workers gravitating to the San Angelo metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and the types of jobs setting up in the area.

“A lot of the initial growth of the workers in energy have now moved closer to their job sites, so the people that are coming here tend to be for the office support functions of energy and the regional headquarters and the service companies that are now servicing the Wolf Camp, the Sprayberry and the beginning of the Cline shale plays,” Neighbors said.

With shale play exploration taking place in contiguous counties, openings for CDL drivers and welders have also taken a dip out of the local company pool, as workers begin to commute for higher wages. Job boards and employment ads reflect a bolstered recruitment effort that for the next few years is anticipated to remain on the incline.

According to a recently-published short-term economic forecast by the Perryman Group, the San Angelo MSA, comprised of Tom Green and Irion counties, is projected to continue to grow at an above-average rate over the next four years.

The forecast lists the 2013 population as 116,342. By 2018, that number is expected to rise by 7,255 residents, a 1.22 percent compound growth annually. While San Angelo has remained above average in job and population growth over the past few years, Neighbors says this projection is slightly higher than the city has previously experienced.

“Our growth rate has averaged between  .7 percent and 1 percent,” Neighbors explained. “It’s not explosive like Midland or something, but I think it’s something that we’re seeing evidence of even now, growth at a little bit higher rate than we have traditionally seen.”

An estimated 5,976 new jobs are forecasted to come to the area by 2018, and while the majority thus far have been energy related, Neighbors says the city may expect to see a trickle-down effect to other industries as well.

“You’ve had growth in energy, and again, that’s a regional-type input,” he said. “But you’ve also had growth in some of our major employers and so when you have those kinds of jobs growing, then the retail and the service jobs kind of follow those.”

Currently, some 10-12 new hotels are in various stages of construction, permitting and feasibility, Neighbors said, two of which are now open and operable. With hotels come restaurants and other retail outlets, diversifying the job pool and giving the economy deeper root.

“We’re almost at four years straight of growth in our sales tax, which is a pretty amazing feat for us,” he said. “And of course when you diversify the economy, all of us as taxpayers, there are more of us supporting the infrastructure that we have.”

One of the largest concerns heard citywide is that growth has ushered in price hikes targeted at high-salary energy sector employees while non-energy salaries remain relatively stagnant. This, too, could be subject to change if local companies want to remain competitive and maintain their workforce.

“Normally, it (growth in a higher-paid sector) has a pressure on all wages,” Neighbors said. “In other words, in order for employers to maintain good employees, they have to make sure that their wages and benefits are keeping pace to a degree with what’s happening in the marketplace.”