HCC helps drive strong Houston region, state economy
Jan 14, 2025
Dear Friends and Supporters of Houston Community College:
Beginning with this edition, I will send periodic updates, news or opinion articles to inform you about Houston Community College. In this inaugural edition, let me share with you the findings of a fresh economic impact study released by Lightcast. I encourage you to share this news with your friends and colleagues!
HCC helps drive strong Houston region, state economy
As one of the largest community colleges in the nation, Houston Community College (HCC) is a major economic driver for the Houston region and Texas, providing significant financial, employment, and social benefits while fostering long-term economic growth and stability for the region.
According to Lightcast, a labor market analytics company that collects and provides data on the job market, fiscal year 2022-23, HCC employed nearly 5,000 full-time and part-time faculty and staff members, with an annual payroll of more than $272 million, much of which was spent on local goods and services. In addition, the college spent just under $190 million on facilities, supplies and professional services, generating an estimated total of more than 5,120 local jobs.
Around one-third of HCC’s students come from outside the region, bringing new dollars into the local economy. In addition, many local students would have left the area for higher education without HCC’s presence. Spending by these students in 2022-2023 generated almost $158 million in added income to the area, supporting more than 2,500 additional regional jobs.
Attracting and retaining talent to the Houston area is also a crucial part of what HCC does for the economy. The college’s real-world education provides the highly skilled workers needed to fuel business efficiency and increase economic output across nearly all employment sectors. This is especially true in the health care, technology, and manufacturing arenas.
At the individual level, the numbers show that the increased average earnings of individuals are dramatic. At the midpoint of a person’s career, the average associate degree graduate from HCC will see an increase in earnings of $10,100 each year compared to a person with a high school diploma or equivalent. Over a working lifetime, the benefits of the associate degree over a high school diploma will amount to an undiscounted value of $404,000 in higher earnings per graduate. The present value of the cumulative higher future earnings that HCC’s FY 2022-23 students will receive over their working careers is $1.6 billion.
From the perspective of taxpayers, HCC generates more in tax revenue than it receives. These benefits to taxpayers consist primarily of taxes that the state and local government will collect from the added revenue created in the state. As HCC students earn more, they will make higher tax payments throughout their working lives. Students’ employers will also make higher tax payments as they increase their output and purchases of goods and services.
As the college system continues to see its enrollment grow—up this year 8% over last year—new graduates will take on important jobs in our communities and continue to fuel our economy and contribute to the state’s prosperity, health, and well-being.
—Margaret Ford Fisher, Ed.D.
Chancellor
Read the full Lightcast report here