The folks over at Forbes recently called Houston “America’s next great global city”. In a really interesting infographic, in which it labeled Houston the capital of a region it dubbed the “Third Coast” (stretching from the Gulf of Mexico region in south Texas all the way to western Floria), Forbes predicts population and economic growth based primarily on a booming energy sector and rapidly increasing international trade.
Indeed, Houston recently passed New York City to becomes America’s leading exporter.
Here’s what they had to say about the Third Coast:
Once a sleepy, semitropical backwater, the Third Coast, which stretches along the Gulf of Mexico from south Texas to western Florida, has come out of the recession stronger than virtually any other region. Since 2001, its job base has expanded 7%, and it is projected to grow another 18% the coming decade.
The energy industry and burgeoning trade with Latin America are powering the Third Coast, combined with a relatively low cost, business-friendly climate. By 2023 its capital–Houston–will be widely acknowledged as America’s next great global city. Many other cities across the Gulf, including New Orleans and Corpus Christi, are also major energy hubs. The Third Coast has a concentration of energy jobs five times the national rate, and those jobs have an average annual salary of $100,000, according to EMSI.
As the area gets wealthier, The Third Coast’s economy will continue to diversify. Houston, which is now the country’s most racially and ethnically diverse metro area, according to a recent Rice study, is home to the world’s largest medical center and has dethroned New York City as the nation’s leading exporter.
Like many Houston businesses, Genesis BCS has benefited from the strong growth of the oil and gas sector in Houston. Company’s like Sidewinder Drilling, Tana Exploration, and Pacific Drilling have all benefited from technologies like VoIP, wireless networks, and video conferencing, among other technologies, which drastically improve productivity and mobility of their workforces.