The Woodlands Edition | March 2025

Business

BY VANESSA HOLT

Major employers add 1K+ jobs in 2025

A closer look

Among the statistics presented in the report, the area’s five largest nonretail major employers with 100 or more employees were nearly the same as last year, aside from Lone Star College replacing Texas Children’s in the fifth place. “Our nonprofit hospitals and schools have created most of our job growth, though we saw some good growth in our energy sector this last year,” Gibb said. However, he said the EDP focuses mainly on recruiting in other sectors and industries. “For continued growth, we need to continue attracting companies and sectors like energy, chem- icals, manufacturing and life sciences,” Gibb said.

in 2022 after challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of major nonretail employers dropped from 86 in 2023 to 85 in early 2024 and now 84 this February, according to the report. However, the total number of employees has grown to 41,103, or about 2.67% growth since early 2024. Ten years ago, in 2015, the workforce was just over 30,000, according to the EDP.

As of February, The Woodlands area saw the most annual growth among major employers since 2018, with health care leading jobs for the sixth year in a row, Jevon Gibb, CEO of The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership, announced at the annual Economic Outlook Conference Feb. 21. This includes adding 1,067 jobs among major nonretail employers with 100 or more local employees since early last year, continuing a pattern of growth since the region saw a dip

Job growth in The Woodlands area among major nonretail employers in 2025*

50,000

Largest nonretail employers in 2025

41,103

38,559

Number of employees

40,000

Conroe ISD 4,857 Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center 3,300 Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital 2,937 St. Luke’s Health 2,412 Lone Star College 1,589

30,000

30,330

20,000

0

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

2020 2021 2022 2023 2024

2025

*MAJOR NONRETAIL EMPLOYERS HAVE 100 OR MORE EMPLOYEES

SOURCE: THE WOODLANDS AREA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION/COMMUNITY IMPACT

SOURCE: THE WOODLANDS AREA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP/ COMMUNITY IMPACT

Measuring the impact

Major nonretail employers by sector, 2025 Health care: 32.6% Education: 19% Other: 15.2%* Professional and business services: 10% Energy: 9% Chemical: 7.1% Transportation and warehousing: 7.1%

Major takeaways

Compared to February 2024, health care grew from 28% of the workforce in The Woodlands area to 32.6% of the workforce early this year. Energy saw about a 2% drop over the course of the year, from 11.2% to 9% of the workforce, while educa- tion grew from 18.1% to 19%. Overall Texas job growth in 2025 is projected at 1.6%, Jesse B. Thompson, senior business econo- mist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said at the event. Keynote speaker Nicholas Webb, CEO of LeaderLogic, a management consulting firm, discussed change and innovation and emphasized the need for customer experience, including in health care—the industry which has led The Woodlands’ major employers since 2020. “We need to have product quality and product innovation, ... but today, when you overlay the [customer experience] dynamic, this is where success lives,” Webb said.

In addition to presenting statistics on growth and change among local industries and major employers, Gibb announced a project with Newmark, a site-selecting company. On the heels of The Woodlands’ 50th anniversary last year, Gibb said he hopes to see the collaboration create “the kind of progress that will make the next 50 years as special as the last 50.” While the area is mostly built out for residential development, he said commercial development and vertical growth remains an option. Gibb also said life sciences while comprise only 0.3% of major employers as of the 2025 report, they bring high-paying jobs and capital investments.

*OTHER CATEGORIES INCLUDE HOSPITALITY, FINANCIAL SERVICES, PUBLIC AGENCIES, MANUFACTURING, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT, LIFE SCIENCE AND SOCIAL SERVICES.

SOURCE: THE WOODLANDS AREA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP/ COMMUNITY IMPACT

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