Center for Community and Business Research

Sul Ross State University - Rio Grande College Field Center

The SBDC business advisors provide training and consulting to small business owners at Sul Ross State University-Rio Grande College.

Download the Sul Ross Rio Grande College SBDC area report

The Rio Grande College SBDC, with headquarters in Eagle Pass and satellite offices in Del Rio and Uvalde, serves nine counties in southwest Texas. Sometimes referred to as the Southwest Texas Badlands, this area is known for its fields of purple sage and its Old West ambiance.

Eagle Pass, located on the border across from Piedras Negras, Mexico, is the center of a thriving international trade community. First established as a camp in 1849, Eagle Pass has grown into a city of over 30,000 people. With a variety of shops and malls, it is the gateway to Piedras Negras’ colorful outdoor markets and handiwork of the Mexican tradition. Biculturalism flourishes in Eagle Pass, and it is common for people in Eagle Pass to speak both Spanish and English.

Del Rio, sister city of Cuidad Acuña, Mexico, combines the ambiance of Mexico with American culture to orm a diversified city. Nearby, the Pecos River joins the Devil’s River and the Rio Grande to create Lake Amistad, the ninth largest river-lake in the United States with more than 850 miles of shoreline. Judge Roy Bean, “The law West of the Pecos,” is buried here.

Uvalde is a relatively old township in southwest Texas. Settled in 1853, it served as a trading post for area settlers and forts along the Nueces River. Prior to Texas’ annexation, many battles were fought along the Nueces River in an attempt to settle the boundary dispute between Texas and Mexico.

The multicultural ambiance and history of the three major cities permeates the nine county field center area. The economy of the region is closely tied to the economy of the Texas-Mexico border. The SBDC and the university possess unique resources which enhance the economic development activities of private businesses and public entities throughout the entire Middle Rio Grande – southwest Texas region. One of the Center’s primary goals is to act as a catalyst for business and economic development by providing a broad range of education, counseling, and technical assistance activities targeted to businesses, economic development organizations, public officials, and the broader community.

Labor Market Highlights

The Eagle Pass field center area displayed growth and declines in the labor force through 2004 and 2005, but the shifts represented a range of only 3,000 jobs, from a high of over 67,000 jobs in January of 2005 to lows of nearly 64,000 jobs later that summer. Unemployment claims are high in the Eagle Pass area, and track closely to the overall size of the labor force. At the beginning of 2004, one in eight members of the labor force were unemployed (12.8%). By the third quarter of the 2004 the unemployment rate had fallen to 7.7 percent, but was back to double digits before the end of the year. 2005 exhibited a similar trend, with unemployment falling to 6.8 percent in September but returning to double digits in early 2006.

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. The “field center ratio” shows the proportion of industry jobs compared to all jobs in the area. As in most other southwest Texas field center areas, over half of the jobs in the Eagle Pass field center area are in two industries: education and health services (0.351); and trade, transportation, and utilities (0.217).

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 1,559 professional and business service jobs, which is about 3 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 0.033 (the field center ratio) by 0.119 (the state ratio) yields a quotient of 0.28. 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 0.28 indicates that the professional and business service industry is not a concentration industry in the Eagle Pass field center area, and might even be called severely under- represented.

Which industries have a particular foothold in the Eagle Pass Field Center? As with other field center areas in this part of the state, public administration is a concentration industry in the Eagle Pass area. Whereas the state average is for public administration to represent 4.2 percent of jobs, the industry represents over 10 percent of jobs in the Eagle Pass area. Natural resources and mining is also a notable concentration industry. Although natural resources and mining accounts for only 2,000-plus jobs, it is 4.6 percent of jobs – nearly twice the representation at the state level.

Education and health services is also a notable concentration in the Eagle Pass field center area. Although this is the largest industry at the state level, it is overwhelmingly so in Eagle Pass, accounting for over one-third of the jobs.

Professional and business services is the most under- represented industry in the Eagle Pass field center area. The information industry is nearly as low – the area would need to more than double its 478 jobs in this industry to keep pace with the ratio in the rest of the state.