Texas ranks among top 10 best states for jobs in new report

jobs report

Texas led all states for job growth during the 12-month period that ended in September. Photo via Getty Images

Business boosters often describe Texas as an economic engine. A new ranking from personal finance website WalletHub underscores that assessment.

WalletHub put Texas at No. 8 on its new list of the best states for jobs. Nebraska grabbed the No. 1 spot, and West Virginia landed at No. 50.

To compile the list, WalletHub evaluated 34 metrics from two categories: job market and economic environment. It then crunched the numbers to create a score for each state. A score of 100 represents the most favorable conditions for job seekers.

Texas ranked 25th in the job market category and second in the economic environment category. Texas’ eighth-place showing was based on a score of 59.23.

“The best states for jobs make it easier for residents to find and retain jobs, and employers in these states also offer very competitive compensation and benefits,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. “In addition, the top states are great places for people looking to raise a family, ranking among the best states for working parents.”

Data released in late October shows Texas led all states for job growth during the 12-month period that ended in September. In that time, Texas added 154,300 jobs at an annual rate of 1.1 percent.

“Texas is America’s jobs leader,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a press release. “Businesses big and small invest with confidence in Texas and in our growing and skilled workforce. That means bigger paychecks for more Texans and more opportunities for Texas families to prosper for years to come.”

Abbott noted Texas reigns as the top state for attracting job-producing businesses and creating jobs at small businesses.

The Houston metro area actually saw a decline in new jobs in September, losing 7,300 jobs compared with the previous month. On a year-over-year basis, the region added 13,500 jobs, with professional and business services, construction, and private education and health services leading the growth.

From Your Site Articles
Three Texas metros cracked the top 10. Photo by Ali A on Unsplash

Houston ranks high on best cities for small-business expansion report

business growth

For small businesses looking to expand, Houston might be the right place.

Among 56 major U.S. metros, Houston grabbed the No. 6 spot on a new list of the metros boasting the strongest environments for small-business expansion.

A 2025 report from the state comptroller’s office showed roughly 970,000 small businesses operate in the 13-county Gulf Coast region. The region includes the majority of the Houston metro area.

“Whether it’s a family-owned shop on Main Street or a fast-growing startup, small businesses power our state’s economic engine, create opportunity, and strengthen the character of every Texas community,” Kelly Hancock, who was interim state comptroller when the report was released, said in a press release.

Business lending platform Clarify Capital analyzed five factors to develop the list: job growth, business entry and exit, net job creation, and unemployment.

Overall, the Nashville area claimed the No. 1 spot on the list. Other major Texas metros also cracked the top 10, including Austin at No. 3 and Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 7.

“The highest-ranking metros combine labor-market momentum with steady business formation and relatively favorable local employment conditions,” Clarity Capital says.

The Houston metro ranked sixth for job growth, 11th for business entry rate, 38th for business exit rate, second for net job creation rate, and 50th for unemployment rate.

“For business owners, the ranking is a starting point rather than a guarantee,” Clarify Capital says. “Local demand, competition, operating costs, and access to capital still shape whether an expansion works.”

“Building enough cash-flow room for hiring, equipment, and unexpected expenses can help small and midsize business owners take advantage of a strong market without stretching the business too thin,” the company adds.

Of course, money fuels small-business expansion in the Houston area or anywhere else.

According to an analysis of SBA loan data by feasibility consulting firm MMCG, the Houston metro area saw 1,685 approvals for 7(a) loans and 101 approvals of 504 loans in the federal government’s 2025 budget year. The approval numbers for both loan categories increased from the previous year.

Altogether, the 7(a) and 505 loans exceeded $1 billion.

The data from the U.S. Small Business Administration suggests small-business expansion may be on the rise in the Houston area.

Further potential evidence of small-business expansion in the Houston area: The region experienced a 92 percent rise in account applications from 2024 to 2025 submitted to Bluevine, a small-business banking platform. The Houston metro ranked fifth for the number of Bluevine small-business applications in 2025.

A new study ranks Houston's tech talent. Photo via Getty Images

Houston ranks No. 2 for share of AI talent in professional services

AI surge

Houston’s professional and business services sector—think law, accounting, consulting, and engineering firms—grabs one of the industry’s biggest shares of AI talent.

A report from commercial real estate services giant CBRE ranks Houston No. 2 among the top 50 U.S. and Canadian tech markets for the concentration of AI talent in professional and business services.

Houston’s share of AI talent in professional and business services stands at 26 percent, the report shows. Washington, D.C., tops the list at 31 percent. At 25 percent, Dallas-Fort Worth claims the No. 3 spot.

CBRE based the AI ranking on data from the LinkedIn networking platform.

The company’s researchers tallied 11,709 AI-related tech jobs in Houston. Nationwide, data scientists lead AI-related job growth in the U.S., according to the report.

“AI software and hardware developers are currently the most sought-after tech talent by employers,” the report says.

Houston faces AI talent gap

DoubleTrack, a provider of AI and data consulting, reported in June that Houston faces an AI talent gap.

“The places where businesses say they will adopt AI over the next six months, well ahead of where they are today, are mostly the same places already short on talent: Miami, Houston, and Denver among the metros, South Dakota and South Carolina among the states,” DoubleTrack said.

This labor shortage comes amid Houston’s ascent as an AI hub. For instance, a factory being built here by AI chipmaker NVIDIA and electronics manufacturer Foxconn will produce AI supercomputers and infrastructure systems.

Houston’s place in the sphere of tech talent

Overall, Houston ranks No. 32 in the CBRE report among the top 50 U.S. and Canadian markets for tech talent. The San Francisco Bay Area claims the top spot, with Austin at No. 5 and DFW at No. 8.

CBRE relied on 13 metrics to rank tech talent markets, including concentration of tech talent, tech talent pipeline, and research-and-development investments.

Here are other Houston details from the report:

  • In 2025, Houston’s tech talent workforce numbered 104,080, up 7.3 percent over the past three years.
  • Houston’s average wage for tech talent within the tech industry was $120,216 in 2025, up 13.3 percent over the past three years.
Houston ranked in the top 10 and Dallas-Fort Worth claimed the top spot on a recent tech hub report. Photo via Getty Images.

Houston climbs to top 10 spot on North American tech hubs index

tech report

Houston already is the Energy Capital of the World, and now it’s gaining ground as a tech hub.

On Site Selection magazine’s 2026 North American Tech Hub Index, Houston jumped to No. 10 from No. 16 last year. The index relies on data from Site Selection as well as data from CBRE, CompTIA and TeleGeography to rank the continent’s tech hotspots. The index incorporates factors such as internet connectivity, tech talent and facility projects for tech companies.

In 2023, the Greater Houston Partnership noted the region had “begun to receive its due as a prominent emerging tech hub, joining the likes of San Francisco and Austin as a major player in the sector, and as a center of activity for the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.”

The Houston-area tech sector employs more than 230,000 people, according to the partnership, and generates an economic impact of $21.2 billion.

Elsewhere in Texas, two other metros fared well on the Site Selection index:

  • Dallas-Fort Worth nabbed the No. 1 spot, up from No. 2 last year.
  • Austin rose from No. 8 last year to No. 7 this year.

San Antonio slid from No. 18 in 2025 to No. 22 in 2026, however.

Two economic development officials in DFW chimed in about the region’s No. 1 ranking on the index:

  • “This ranking affirms what we’ve long seen on the ground — Dallas-Fort Worth is a top-tier technology and innovation center,” said Duane Dankesreiter, senior vice president of research and innovation at the Dallas Regional Chamber. “Our region’s scale, talent base, and diverse strengths … continue to set DFW apart as a national leader.”
  • “Being recognized as the top North American tech hub underscores the strength of the entire Dallas-Fort Worth region as a center of innovation and next-generation technology,” said Robert Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership.

While not directly addressing Austin’s Site Selection ranking, Thom Singer, CEO of the Austin Technology Council, recently pondered whether Silicon Hills will grow “into the kind of community that other cities study for the right reasons.”

“Austin tech is not a club. It is not a scene. It is not a hashtag, a happy hour, or any one place or person,” Singer wrote on the council’s blog. “Austin tech is an economic engine and a global brand, built by thousands of people who decided to take a risk, build something, hire others, and be part of a community that is still young enough to reinvent itself.”

South of Austin, Port San Antonio is driving much of that region’s tech activity. Occupied by more than 80 employers, the 1,900-acre tech and innovation campus was home to 18,400 workers in 2024 and created a local economic impact of $7.9 billion, according to a study by Zenith Economics.

“Port San Antonio is a prime example of how innovation and infrastructure come together to strengthen [Texas’] economy, support thousands of good jobs, and keep Texas competitive on the global stage,” said Kelly Hancock, the acting state comptroller.

The health care sector will lead Houston job growth in 2026. Photo via Houston Methodist

Houston poised to add 30,900 new jobs in 2026, forecast says

jobs forecast

Buoyed by the growing health care sector, the Houston metro area will add 30,900 jobs in 2026, according to a new forecast from the Greater Houston Partnership.

The report predicts the Houston area’s health care sector will tack on 14,000 jobs next year, which would make it the No. 1 industry for local job growth. The 14,000 health care jobs would represent 45 percent of the projected 30,900 new jobs. In the job-creation column, the health care industry is followed by:

  • Construction: addition of 6,100 jobs in 2026
  • Public education: Addition of 5,800 jobs
  • Public administration: Addition of 5,000 jobs

At the opposite end of the regional workforce, the administrative support services sector is expected to lose 7,500 jobs in 2026, preceded by:

  • Manufacturing: Loss of 3,400 jobs
  • Oil-and-gas extraction: Loss of 3,200 jobs
  • Retail: Loss of 1,800 jobs

“While current employment growth has moderated, the outlook remains robust and Houston’s broader economic foundation remains strong,” GHP president and CEO Steve Kean said in the report.

“Global companies are choosing to invest in Houston — Eli Lilly, Foxconn, Inventec, and others — because they believe in our workforce and our long-term trajectory,” Kean added. “These commitments reinforce that Houston is a place where companies can scale and where our economy continues to demonstrate its resilience as a major engine for growth and opportunity. These commitments and current prospects we are working on give us confidence in the future growth of our economy.”

The Greater Houston Partnership says that while the 30,900-job forecast falls short of the region’s recent average of roughly 50,000 new jobs per year, it’s “broadly in line with the muted national outlook” for employment gains anticipated in 2026.

“Even so, Houston’s young, skilled workforce and strong pipeline of major new projects should help offset energy sector pressures and keep regional growth on pace with the nation,” the report adds.

The report says that even though the health care sector faces rising insurance costs, which might cause some people to delay or skip medical appointments, and federal changes in Medicare and Medicaid, strong demographic trends in the region will ensure health care remains “a key pillar of Houston’s economy.”

As for the local oil-and-gas extraction industry, the report says fluctuations and uncertainty in the global oil-and-gas market will weigh on the Houston sector in 2026. Furthermore, oil-and-gas layoffs partly “reflect a longer-term trend as companies in the sector move toward greater efficiency using fewer workers to produce similar volumes,” according to the report.

Houston ranks No. 16 in the Brookings Institution’s list of metros that are AI “stars.” Photo via Getty Images.

Houston named ‘star’ metro for artificial intelligence in new report

eyes on AI

A new report declares Houston one of the country’s 28 “star” hubs for artificial intelligence.

The Houston metro area appears at No. 16 in the Brookings Institution’s ranking of metros that are AI “stars.” The metro areas earned star status based on data from three AI buckets: talent, innovation and adoption. Only two places, the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley, made Brookings’ “superstar” list.

According to Brookings, the Houston area had 11,369 job postings in 2024 that sought candidates with AI skills, 210 AI startups (based on Crunchbase data from 2014 to 2024), and 113 venture capital deals for AI startups (based on PitchBook data from 2023 to 2024).

A number of developments are boosting Houston’s AI profile, such as:

Brookings also named Texas’s three other major metros as AI stars:

  • No. 11 Austin
  • No. 13 Dallas-Fort Worth
  • No. 40 San Antonio

Brookings said star metros like Houston “are bridging the gap” between the two superstar regions and the rest of the country. In 2025, the 28 star metros made up 46 percent of the country’s metro-area employment but 54 percent of AI job postings. Across the 28 metros, the number of AI job postings soared 139 percent between 2018 and 2025, according to Brookings.

Around the country, dozens of metros fell into three other categories on Brookings’ AI list: “emerging centers” (14 metros), “focused movers” (29 metros) and “nascent adopters” (79 metros).

Ad Placement 300x100
Ad Placement 300x600

CultureMap Emails are Awesome

Property Showcase

Rice University breaks ground on new innovation hub, The Arc

breaking ground

Construction is officially underway on Rice University's The Arc in Houston’s Ion District.

The university broke ground on the 200,000-square-foot research, corporate innovation and office building on Nov. 4. The facility will share a plaza with the existing Ion building, fostering collaboration within the innovation space, according to Rice.

“The Arc will bring Rice’s extraordinary research and talent and Houston’s impactful innovation ecosystem into even closer connection with the industries and innovators working to solve some of the world’s most consequential challenges,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches said in an announcement. “That constant exchange of ideas and expertise will help move discoveries more rapidly from the laboratory to real-world impact.”

Construction is scheduled to be completed by Q2 2028. Rice Real Estate Co. is developing the project, and Rice University will occupy about 80,000 square feet in the building (about 40 percent). Preleasing has begun, with floor plans ranging from 28,000 to 31,000 square feet.

The Arc will feature conference and meeting spaces, an amenity lounge, fitness center, outdoor plazas, underground parking, and on-site retail and dining, according to the release.

It aims to host tenants focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning, data science, robotics, quantum science and engineering and energy, including Rice's new AI Foundry.

Rice says the AI Foundry will be a space where university experts and partners can support organizations with AI challenges. Rice recently committed to hiring 75 new AI-focused faculty and announced plans to launch a new Master of Artificial Intelligence (MAI) next fall.

“The AI Foundry is exactly the kind of collaboration the Arc is designed to enable,” Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Rice, added in the release. “By bringing Rice researchers together with industry partners in a shared environment, we can accelerate the movement of ideas from research into practical applications while helping organizations build the capabilities they need to succeed as AI continues to evolve.

Developers of The Arc are targeting LEED Gold certification by incorporating smart building automation and energy-saving features into the project's design. Rice first announced the project in September 2025.

Rendering courtesy Bogza

Houston battery tech startup FlowCellutions acquired by Katy energy co.

M&A

Katy-based TerraFlow Energy, an energy storage and infrastructure company, has acquired Houston-based battery technology startup FlowCellutions. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

FlowCellutions still operates under its established name, but with the tagline “A TerraFlow Energy Company.” Becca Segel, founder and CEO of FlowCellutions, now runs the business as its president.

FlowCellutions specializes in electrochemical sensing, diagnostics, analytics, and testing that offer insights into battery chemistry, charging capabilities, and system performance.

“FlowCellutions has always been focused on developing better ways to understand what is happening inside a flow battery and using that information to improve how these systems perform,” Segal said in a press release. “Joining TerraFlow gives us the opportunity to apply that work at a much larger scale while continuing to build the capabilities and expertise that make FlowCellutions unique.”

The FlowCellutions platform supports data centers and other heavy users of power. It’s designed to help reduce operating costs, prevent failures and costly downtime, and extend battery lifetime from about seven years to more than 30 years.

Segel founded the company in 2022. A member of Greentown Labs, the company raised more than $2 million in non-dilutive funding and received $1.5 million in National Science Foundation funding earlier this year.

FlowCellutions is one of five finalists in the Energy Transition Business category of InnovationMap’s 2026 Houston Innovation Awards.

“FlowCellutions brings a depth of scientific and technical expertise that fits naturally with where TerraFlow is going,” Jon Parrella, CEO of TerraFlow, said in the release.

“As we move from developing these systems to deploying them at commercial scale, understanding performance at a deeper level matters,” he said. “Bringing FlowCellutions into TerraFlow strengthens that capability and gives both teams more opportunity to advance the technology.”TerraFlow, founded in 2024, develops long-duration energy storage and power infrastructure for data centers, industrial facilities, utilities and other large power consumers.

---

This article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.

3 fast-growing Houston scaleups named Innovation Awards finalists

meet the finalists

From IPOs to groundbreakings, some of Houston's most innovative companies reached major milestones this year.

As part of the 2026 Houston Innovation Awards, our Scaleup of the Year category honors innovative later-stage startups that have recently reached a significant milestone in company growth. Three scaleups have been named finalists for the 2026 award.

Read more about these businesses, their founders and their breakthrough technologies below. The 2026 winners will be announced on InnovationMap.com in mid-November.

Erock

Energy infrastructure company Erock, previously known as Enchanted Rock, develops dual-purpose microgrids that rely on natural gas and renewable natural gas to produce lower carbon emissions and air pollutants than diesel generators. Its products can provide bridge power before grid interconnection, backup power during outages and dispatchable capacity that supports long-term grid reliability. The company has more than 1,100 megawatts of installed capacity and over 20 years of experience serving commercial, municipal and large-scale technology customers.

Erock completed its initial public offering this year, raising approximately $600 million in gross proceeds. It also grew its contracted power system sales backlog to approximately $1.7 billion, up tenfold year-over-year, with production sold out through 2028, according to the company's application. The company secured a major equipment order from Anthropic, began construction of the 366-megawatt El Paso Electric project supporting Meta's data center campus, and started assembly operations at its Hyperion facility in Cypress, Texas.

Hertha Metals

Hertha Metals produces lower-cost, lower-emission steel and high-purity iron. The company has developed a single-step process that uses natural gas as a direct reductant instead of metallurgical coal, which cuts production costs by more than 25 percent and emissions by up to 50 percent, according to the company. The same process produces high-purity iron needed for high-purity steels and rare earth magnets. The company says it aims to "re-industrialize America’s production of critical materials."

Hertha Metals was founded by CEO Laureen Meroueh in 2022 and emerged from stealth last year with more than $17 million in venture capital funding. The company closed a $133.65 million Series A this month and also broke ground on its $100M high-purity iron factory known as Chalyx in Conroe.

Venus Aerospace

Spacetech company Venus Aerospace is developing a high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) that replaces the subsonic combustion used in conventional rocket engines. The RDRE is a compact, simpler engine that can deliver up to 15 percent greater efficiency for defense and space applications. It completed its first U.S. flight test of the engine last summer.

Venus Aerospace was founded in 2020 by CEO Cassie Duggleby and CTO Andrew Duggleby. It raised a $20 million Series A in 2022 and $42 million Series A2 in 2025. It closed a $91 million Series B earlier this year and expanded its leadership team. The company is working toward longer-duration and higher-thrust testing and advancing its flight program.

View All Listings