Killeen-Temple Area Sees Increase In Six-Figure Jobs

In a climate where pandemic precautions have impacted the job market, studies show an exponential increase in six-figure jobs — particularly in Bell County.

Studies have shown Bell County has seen the sixth-largest increase in six-figure wages over the past five years, compared to similarly-sized metropolitan areas across the country.

Considering recent worker shortages, many employers have resorted to improved compensation and benefits to entice the scarce workforce to fill positions, according to a study by Stessa, a rental property software company.

“These trends have led to the fastest rates of wage growth since the Great Recession, especially among the lowest earners,” the study stated.

But even factoring in improved compensation, lower-wage professions are not growing at the same rate as higher-income jobs over the past few decades, according to the study.

Inflation-adjusted wage growth from 1979 to 2019 for a worker in the 10 percentile of wages was a mere 3.3 percent, according to data from the Economic Policy Institute. Median earner’s wages grew 15.1 percent over that span, while the 95 percentile earners’ wages were up 63.2 percent during the same time frame, the data shows.

“These divergent trends have driven up the share of Americans in high-earning professions and created larger gaps between higher and lower ends of the income spectrum,” the Stessa study states.

Twenty years ago, only 0.7 percent of American workers were in jobs that typically paid more than $100,000 per year, according to the study. That share climbed to 3.8 percent in 2015 and in the past five years, the percentage of American workers in six-figure jobs more than doubled to 7.9 percent in 2020.

The tech field is a major contributing to the growth rate of high-paying jobs nationwide, according to the Stessa study. Software developers and computer and information systems managers both have faster growth rates than most other professions, the study said, currently accounting for more than 1.9 million high-paying jobs.

John Crutchfield, president of the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce agrees with the Stessa study analysis.

“The increase in six figure jobs is due, to a large extent, to the demand for employees with Information Technology skills,” Crutchfield said. “These skills are in demand across the board in all types of industries. They are in short supply.”

As a result, compensation for these employees is rising, he said.

“Many of our employers are constantly in the market for these skills,” Crutchfield said. “We hear a great deal of frustration expressed by those employers.”

Since many of these jobs are done over the internet, a lot of the employees work remotely, he said, which makes the jobs harder to track.

“In addition to IT operational skills needed by employers, cybersecurity challenges are causing this demand to explode,” Crutchfield said. “This trend will continue and accelerate.”

The demand for employees who are proficient in information technology, computer science related fields, and cybersecurity will continue to grow, according to Abdul Subhani, founder, president and CEO of Centex Technologies. Subhani holds certifications in ethical hacking, fraud examination and risk and information systems control, among other advanced IT credentials.

“Companies struggle to find skilled employees in these areas, and in result will increase wages, accommodate the need for flexible work schedules and environments, and offer enticing benefits packages,” Subhani said. “In response to the struggle, many companies outsource their IT and cybersecurity work.”

Every business needs both IT support and security, Subhani said.

“We simply are not producing enough workers to meet the demand,” Subhani said. “This is especially difficult when our technologies continue to evolve and change rapidly.”

Crutchfield said the Bell County area is well-positioned to capitalize on the demand for technical abilities because of the educational system through the Early College High School at Central Texas College, the Cybersecurity Center at Texas A&M University-Central Texas and the skilled veterans entering the workforce after their military service.

The Killeen-Temple area provides an affordable cost of living as well as an affordable pathway to higher education in IT related certificates and degree plans, Subhani agreed.

“Texas A&M Central Texas, Central Texas College and Temple College offer a variety of IT related pathways allowing students to enter the industry quickly while continuing their education to attain more credentials, if desired,” Subhani said.

But while fast-growing tech jobs and more specialized fields like law, health, or finance often get the attention, the most common six-figure profession is general and operations managers, the Stessa study states.

“More than 2.3 million U.S. workers fill this role, which is common in organizations of all types across the public and private sector, and it has a median annual income of $103,650,” the study said.

Geographic regions also tend to have concentrated pockets of high-paying jobs, according to the study.

Six-figure salaries are most common in coastal states including California, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York, where the population tends to have greater educational attainment, cost of living is higher, and high-paying industries like tech, business, law, and health and life sciences are more prevalent, the study found. But even many parts of the country where these jobs are less common are seeing growth in recent years.

“Six-figure jobs more than tripled in Hawaii from 2015 to 2020, and ten other states — mostly in the Mountain West and upper Midwest — had a growth rate for six-figure jobs of more than 100% over the same span,” the study found. “Many of these states are proving more attractive to employers and professionals seeking lower-cost locales.”

At the local level, low costs can also be a major draw for companies looking to grow or expand, along with access to a strong labor supply or top universities, the study found.

The Killeen-Temple metropolitan area experienced a 174.7 percent increase in six-figure jobs between 2015 and 2020, while the U.S. on average saw a 110 percent increase, the sixth-largest growth of similarly sized cities throughout the U.S., according to the data analysis.

With a median wage for the area of $37,290, six-figure jobs make up 3.5 percent of overall employment in the Killeen area, the study found.

On a national scale, six-figure jobs increased 110 percent in the past five years. With a median income of $41,950, six-figure jobs make up 7.9 percent of jobs in the U.S., the study found.