• While overall employment in the State of Texas increased 13.93% between 1997 and 2002, employment within the construction industry rose by 30.06%, creating 128,296 new construction jobs as well as creating 2,131 new construction establishments in 5 years.

• Construction workers in Texas saw a salary increase of 16.12% from 1997-2002, compared to the average salary increase construction workers across the United States, which increased by 14.97%. 

• The number of businesses in Texas grew from 348,166 in 1997 to 363,393 in 2002, an increase of 4.37%.  Construction establishments in Texas however, increased by 6.03% from 35,315 in 1997 to 37,446 in 2002.

• Of the 15,227 new businesses established between 1997 and 2002 in Texas, 2,131 or 13.99% of those establishments were in the construction industry. 

• According to Union Membership and Coverage Database, available at www.unionstats.com, in 2006, only 1.9 percent of Texas’s private construction workforce belonged to a construction trade union.  That means that approximately 99 out of 100 Texas’s private construction workers do not belong to a labor union.

Data are from the U.S. Bureau of the Census except where noted.

• Texas is a prevailing wage state. There is no dollar threshold amount for contract coverage under state prevailing wage law in Texas.