City of Houston Jobs
Anyone looking for City of Houston jobs (Click here) should know the area has plenty to offer.
Houston, which is home to 2.2 million people, had a Gross Area Product of $440.4 billion during 2008. Between November 2007 and November 2008, the Houston area added 42,400 private-sector jobs, the biggest gain of any city in the country.
Rated as a beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, the Houston area is home to 89 foreign government consular offices; 40 foreign government trade and commercial offices; 23 foreign chambers of commerce and trade associations; and 25 foreign banks representing 13 nations.
The Houston area has received several recognitions, including the third-best place for business and careers by Forbes in 2006; the best city for personal finance by Kiplinger in 2008; the fourth-best city for increasing local technological innovation during the last 15 years in 2008; and the best city for college graduates and the best city to buy a home by Forbes in 2008.
The economy in Houston is known for its energy, manufacturing, aeronautics, transportation and healthcare sectors. Mining, including exploration and production of oil and gas, accounts for about 26.3 percent of Houston's Gross Area Product, followed by engineering services, health services and manufacturing.
Due to the city's position as "energy capital of the world," five of the six largest energy companies maintain a presence in Houston. The international headquarters of ConocoPhillips, U.S. operational headquarters of Exxon-Mobil and U.S. headquarters of Shell Oil are all located in Houston, where BP and Chevron also have somewhat of a presence. Also headquartered in the city are Marathon Oil Corporation, Apache Corporation, Citgo, and alternative energy companies such as Horizon Wind energy.
Houston also is home to the Texas Medical Center, which houses the largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions in the world, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located. The Port of Houston, which is the 10th-largest port in the world, ranks first in the country for international waterborne tonnage handled and second for total cargo tonnage handled.
The Houston area is home to more than 50 Fortune 500 companies, including:
- ConocoPhillips
- Marathon Oil
- Sysco
- Enterprise GP Holdings
- Plains All American Pipeline
- Halliburton
- Continental Airlines
- National Oilwell Varco
- Waste Management
- Reliant Energy
- Apache
- Knight
- Baker Hughes
- KBR
- CenterPoint Energy
- Smith International
- Enbridge Energy Partners
- Calpine
- Targa Resources
- EOG Resources
- Frontier Oil
- Cameron International
- Group 1 Automotive
- BJ Services
- El Paso
- Spectra Energy
- FMC Technologies
- Adams Resources & Energy
- Noble Energy
- Quanta Services
- Westlake Chemical
- Dynergy
- Exterran Holdings
- Southern Union
- Oil States International
- Pride International
- Plains Exploration and Production
- Southwestern Energy
- HCC Insurance Holdings
- Newfield Exploration
- Rowan Cos.
- Patterson-UTI Energy
- Dresser-Rand Group
- Metals USA Holdings
- Service Corp. International
- Helix Energy Solutions Group
- Oceaneering International
- Men's Wearhouse
- Key Energy Services
- Complete Production Services
- NCI Building Systems
- Eagle Rock Energy Partners
- BMC Software
In addition to maintaining a historically strong economy, the Houston area has continued to thrive despite the current economic recession. The area has continued to add jobs on a monthly basis and maintained a relatively low unemployment rate.
During October, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area's unemployment rate remained at 8.5 percent, following an increase from 8.4 percent during September. The area's current rate is lower than the national unemployment rate at the time of 10.2 percent.
The area had a total non-farm employment of 2,529,100 workers during October, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 2,520,000 workers during September, but a 3 percent decrease from last year.