SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — In the five-year period between 2015 and 2020, industry employment in Texas rose by 3.3 percent or about 420,000 jobs according to the Texas Comptroller’s Office. A few of those industries stood above the rest when it comes to job growth.

There were 13.2 million people employed in Texas in 2020, a 17.1 percent rise from 2010 according to data from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

By employment levels, restaurants, education, and health care are the three largest industries in the state. Within these industries, there has been a significant increase in employment in grocery stores, physician’s offices, and postsecondary schools.

Grocery stores saw a 10.5 percent increase, offices of physicians saw a 9.2 percent increase and elementary and secondary schools saw a 2.6 percent increase.

Also during those five years, the warehousing and storage industries’ employment in Texas more than doubled, accounting for the state’s largest job gains. A high growth rate has also been seen in courier services and technology jobs.

Warehousing and storage saw a 120.8 percent increase, courier services saw a 57.9 percent increase and technology jobs saw a 27.6 percent increase.

The location quotient (LQ), which measures how concentrated an industry is in a state or region compared to its national average size, shows that oil and gas extraction and petrochemical production were highly concentrated and unique to the state economy. In a competitive market, a state’s LQ of 1.25 or greater indicates it has a comparative advantage in the industry.

The oil and gas extraction industry had an LQ of 6.03 and the petrochemical production industry had an LQ of 2.41.

Laborers, material movers, restaurant employees, and retail salespeople are among the occupations with high employment levels in Texas. A significant increase in employment was seen between 2015 and 2020 in home health care, customer service, and material moving occupations.

Overall Texas added more than 1.9 million jobs between 2010 and 2015 which was more than double the national growth rate.