October 5, 2017

Texas Comptroller Visits Waco Area on Tour of Texas Manufacturing Plants

(MCGREGOR) — On the third stop of his Good for Texas Tour: Manufacturing Edition, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today visited the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) rocket-development facility in McGregor.

"The aerospace industry employs a highly educated and skilled workforce," Hegar said. "About 60 percent of its Texas employees have at least some college experience, compared to 47 percent of all employed Texans. The aerospace industry also creates jobs that pay well above the statewide average, with the average full-time worker earning more than $97,000 per year."

During his Good for Texas Tour: Manufacturing Edition, Hegar will tour facilities, meet with local officials and release the results of a study the Comptroller’s office recently completed examining the economic impact of the manufacturing industry.

The aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing subsector designs and builds aircraft, missiles, space vehicles and their components, including engines and auxiliary parts, as well as railroad equipment, ships and boats, motorcycles and military vehicles. The subsector is responsible for $9.8 billion in annual exports and almost 177,000 direct and indirect Texas jobs, and contributes $12.9 billion to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP).

In all, Texas manufacturers were responsible for more than 3 million direct and indirect jobs in 2016. The average annual salary for the direct jobs is nearly $74,000. In 2016, Texas manufacturers exported $210.3 billion in goods and contributed $225.8 billion to the state’s GDP.

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