Center for Community and Business Research

Angelo State University SBDC

The SBDC business advisors provide training and consulting to small business owners at Angelo State University.

Download the San Angelo SBDC area report

Download the San Angelo
Economic Indicator

San Angelo was founded in the late 1860s as a frontier town and was known as Santa Angela and San Angela before adopting its current name. San Angelo and the Concho Valley are known affectionately as the “oasis” of West Texas. Many people who come to this area for a visit often come back to retire because of the people, the history, and the culture of the area.

Located at the confluence of three rivers, San Angelo arose from the placement of Fort Concho in 1867. The fort at different times was home to mounted cavalry, infantryman, and the famous Black Cavalry whose members were respectfully called Buffalo Soldiers by the Native Americans in the area. Today, the growing Hispanic population represents about one-third of area residents.

The discovery of oil and gas many years ago made the Concho Valley an important petroleum production area. This added greatly to the economic growth of the area. Today, the area has a diversified economy with light manufacturing, communications, health services, and is also an important agricultural region.

Angelo State University has been in the area since 1928 and serves as a center for education along with Howard College, a two year community college. Goodfellow Air Force Base has been in the area since World War II and serves all branches of the military with intelligence, firefighting, and linguistics training.

The area is a ripe breeding ground for entrepreneurs and small businesses. The Angelo State University Small Business Development Center has been working with thousands of these small businesses since 1990 by providing one-on-one counseling and by conducting hundreds of business seminars on all types of business topics. The center regularly goes out into the 10 county field center area to provide these services.

Labor Market Highlights

The San Angelo field center area experienced gains and losses in the labor force within a narrow band through 2004 and 2005. That is, despite its spikes in labor force in the summers of 2004 and 2005, the variation represents a small range between 69,500 and 72,000 workers.

Unemployment, on the other hand, has steadily trended downward over the time period. The unemployment rate dropped a full point from the first quarter of 2004 (5.0%) to the last quarter of 2005 (4.0%).

The Field Center Area Jobs chart shows both the number of jobs in field center counties and the concentration of the industry relative to the rest of the state at the end of the first quarter of 2005. Tom Green County dominates the field center area with 80 percent of the jobs.

The “field center ratio” shows the proportion of industry jobs compared to all jobs in the area. As in the El Paso and Alpine field center areas, nearly half of the jobs in the San Angelo field center area are in two industries: education and health services (0.276); and trade, transportation, and utilities (0.194).

The question of whether these industry ratios are high or low can be determined by comparing them with the proportions that the industry represents in the rest of the state. For example, the field center area reports 3,714 professional and business service jobs, which is about 8 percent of all jobs in the area. However, to keep pace with the state average, the proportion needs to be nearly 12 percent of jobs in this industry. Dividing 0.075 (the field center ratio) by 0.119 (the state ratio) yields a quotient of 0.63. This number is referred to as a “location quotient.” When the location quotient is less than 1.0, the area industry is under-represented relative to the state. When the location quotient is greater than 1.0, the area industry is over-represented relative to the state. So, a quotient of 0.63 indicates that the professional and business service industry is not a concentration industry in the San Angelo field center area.

Which industries have a particular foothold in the San Angelo Field Center? Consistent with the El Paso and Alpine areas, public administration is a concentration industry in Alpine. However, more notably, natural resources and mining, and the information industry, are concentration industries in the San Angelo area. The natural resource and mining industry’s 2,600-plus jobs represent 5 percent of all jobs in the field center area, whereas the state average is only 2.3 percent. The story is similar for the information industry, where 2,000 plus jobs is nearly twice the ratio for the state.

On the other hand, this well-balanced field center area is not lagging substantially in any industry. The lowest location quotient is 0.63 in professional and business services, but this respectable quotient is balanced by gains in the information industry.