Texas has the ninth-largest economy in the world. The Texas manufacturing economy is the second largest in the U.S.
Texas manufacturing accounts for 10% of the U.S. manufacturing gross domestic product. It contributes over 13% of the state’s total output. The industry also employs 7% of the Texas workforce, with more than 918,000 employees working for over 25,000 manufacturing firms.
The Texas Workforce Commission estimates an increase of 63,100 manufacturing jobs from 2014 to 2024. The state’s manufacturing jobs growth rate of 7.2% is higher than the national average. At the same time, Texas manufacturing is facing a disruptive shift. It needs to evolve, thrive, and grow with the introduction of cybersecurity and smart manufacturing technologies such as advanced robotics, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
Thus, Texas finds itself at a critical juncture to keep pace. The state must capture the full breadth of its resources to do so. Uncoordinated, one-off approaches to invigorate the Texas manufacturing ecosystem do not meet the U.S. Department of Defense’s strategic needs. The Texas Defense Aerospace Manufacturing Community (TDAMC) aims to secure the future of Texas aerospace manufacturing.
TDAMC incorporates the mega-metropolitan regions of Dallas-Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Together, the 35 counties of this rapidly developing economic region have become known as the “Texas Triangle.” TDAMC also includes the contiguous counties within 75 miles of the Texas Gulf Coast. This area captures the significant aerospace activities in the Corpus Christi region and the emerging space activities in the Rio Grande Valley region.
TDAMC represents 96% of the state’s defense manufacturing contracts and several top 10 aerospace defense contractors. As a small region, TDAMC has more defense manufacturing than any state in the U.S. We have defense aerospace contracts nearly four times that of the next largest state.
