CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As the Coastal Bend area continues to grow more jobs are being created to meet the demand.
Workforce Solutions of the Coastal Bend President and CEO Ken Trevino said that our area is starting to see more consistent job market numbers since before the pandemic.
"Some parts of our region were up 18 percent of unemployment," Trevino said.
He said that the Coastal Bend took longer to recover from the pandemic, but said that stability is here now.
"We are approaching pre-COVID numbers with unemployment first of all," Trevino said. "We are seeing tremendous growth in the construction field year over year."
It's a field Bayfront Roofing and Construction owner Scott Ricks said he sees constant interest in.
"The population in Corpus Christi has been growing," Ricks said. "Texas as a whole is growing quickly. There's a lot of jobs and industry in this area that brings a lot of people in."
Ricks said when residents eventually come to live in the city they'll inevitably need a place to stay, which is where construction plays a large role.
"When you have a lot of people, you need a lot of houses, so the growing need to bring in more houses has definitely sparked a lot of construction in the area," he said.
Rick said that when the pandemic was at it's highest point, people started paying attention to their properties like never before.
"People were home, they were looking at their house thinking, 'Hey I have been needing to do this for a long time,'" he said. "Some of them tried to DIY solutions, some of that didn't work out because it was a little more advanced then they could handle."
Trevino said that his team has also seen an 11 percent year-over-year increase in professional services. Those are positions like accountants, engineers and process technicians that supply the oil gas industries.