Data Shows Immigrants Crucial to Texas Healthcare, Construction, and Energy Industries

Business, civic, and faith leaders gathered recently at Amegy Bank in Houston to discuss the crucial role that immigrants play to decrease workforce shortages and increase economic growth in Texas and to emphasize the need for federal, state, and local legislation that will increase the integration of immigrants into the workforce. Data in new reports released by the American Immigration Council highlighted how significantly immigrants empower Texas and Houston’s workforce in the healthcare, construction, and energy industries, key sectors of the economy that directly impact all Texans.

The reports were prepared in partnership with Texans for Economic Growth, a statewide 145+ member business coalition powered by the American Immigration Council, Harris Health, the Greater Houston Builders Association, the Houston Gulf Coast Building & Construction Trades Council, and the Houston Endowment, and released in collaboration with the Greater Houston Partnership, Amegy Bank, Texas Association of Business, and Texans for Economic Growth.

A key point echoed by all speakers at the event was the insufficient number of native-born Americans available to fill the open jobs that are required to keep the Texas economy growing. The data shows that this has resulted in immigrants contributing at increasing and beneficial rates to Texas’ healthcare, construction, and energy workforces.

Steve Stephens, CEO of Amegy Bank, pointed out that workforce growth is a key component of GDP growth and that businesses of all kinds are struggling to find the workers they need.

“Just about every business client that we talk to, their number one comment is, I need more workers. I need better workers. And so, it is almost across the board,” said Stephens.

Chelsie Kramer, Texas State Organizer, American Immigration Council, also exemplified this point with the fact that the number of native-born workers is on a declining trajectory.

“If you look at our age graph for the U.S. right now, it’s not a triangle like it should be, it’s a big bubble. That’s because citizens are not replacing ourselves. The current birth rate of citizens is 1.66 per woman, well below the rate of 2.1 required just to maintain a steady population. This is one reason why attracting global talent is so incredibly important to our economy,” said Kramer.

Kramer also pointed out that not only is the U.S. native born population declining, but it is also aging, which in turn is increasing the demand and cost of healthcare. With over 3.3 million job postings in the Texas healthcare industry over the last 5-years, the need for more healthcare workers is clear. Without enough native-born Americans to meet the demand, immigrants, who make up 17.2 percent of the state’s population, now comprise 34.5% of physicians, 32.1% of dentists, and 30.9% of pharmacists in the state.

Healthcare costs are a key concern for Americans, and while immigrants are helping to lower them by filling in workforce gaps, Kramer pointed out that the U.S. visa system is still not allowing for enough healthcare workers to meet demands.  

Dr. Esmaeil Porsa, M.D., President and CEO of Harris Health System, elaborated on the demand for healthcare workers.

“When you think about Houston, known as the center point of the largest health system in the world, not just in the country, and I think it was in the report that for every 27 posted health care jobs, there's one unemployed health care worker, forget about the future. Today, we are deeply in trouble by not having enough workforce. And you add to that, there's this mandate coming out about a certain number of nurses in the hospitals or in the clinics or in nursing homes. And you heard about the aging population. The discrepancy is only going to grow. That inequality in demand is only going to grow. It really baffles me that we are so unfortunately ideologically driven that we're willingly letting go of logic,” said Porsa on the need for immigration reforms to help bolster the healthcare workforce.

The construction workforce is another industry that is experiencing rampant workforce shortages and as a result is becoming increasingly reliant on immigrant workers. Despite making up 17.2 percent of Texas’ total population, immigrants comprised 40.0 percent of all employees in the construction industry, including 39.7 percent of all entrepreneurs in the industry.

Workforce shortages in construction impact Texans in many ways. Not only do they increase the cost of housing, but they increase wait times, which can be critical in times of recovery from natural disasters. Kramer pointed out that it took almost a month to get an electrician to come out to set up a backup generator at her house after she lost power for a week during Hurricane Beryl.

Matthew Reibenstein, President of the Greater Houston Builders Association, stated that the Texas construction industry has a massive shortage of skilled workers and that the solution would require increasing training and recruitment efforts, which many leaders in the industry are already doing, in addition to immigration reform.

“I went to my wife's new classroom and one of the things on the wall was ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Of the 23 students, four of them said YouTubers. And I did not know that was an actual industry. So I started to show my age. But it was interesting that when I looked at this wall, nobody said mason, and nobody said plumber, and nobody said framer. And I'm like, ‘my goodness, somebody needs to talk to these kids about what's actually going to make them some money in life,’” said Reibenstein on career interests of American kids these days and the challenge of getting students interested in construction careers from elementary through high school.

“When we talk about immigration or immigration reform, we're not saying this is the one end-all to all of our demand issues. It is a big piece of this puzzle that I think is being neglected for far too long and that is why we're seeing some of these huge workforce gaps,” added Reibenstein.

Kramer also pointed out that there is not a workable visa for the construction industry to utilize to meet workforce demands. While construction workers may be able to enter the U.S. on a limited number of H-2B visas, those numbers are insufficient, and the seasonal nature of the visa does not allow for companies to recruit and train longtime employees. The shortage of available native-born workers and lack of legal pathways for immigrant workers is a main reason why so many undocumented immigrants work in the construction industry, she stated.

Workforce shortages in the Texas energy industry impact all Texans by driving up the cost of almost everything from gasoline, to electricity, to food. Despite making up 17.2 percent of the state’s total population, immigrants make up 32.5 percent of workers in petroleum, mining, and geological engineers, including mining and safety engineers, and 25.9 percent of other extraction workers, helping to fill jobs for which native-born Americans are unavailable.

Paul Puente, Executive Secretary of the Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council, pointed out that like construction work, energy work has the potential to be dangerous when workers don’t receive proper training. He stressed the value of the W2 employer-employee relationship, which comes with more training, career development, and workers compensation insurance as opposed to independent contracting that allows employers to cut short-term costs by avoiding paying payroll taxes and providing benefits.

“We're in the industry of competition. And when you're competing, everyone wants it done as cheap as possible. I mean, it's just what it is. But when you start cutting corners here and there, the quality of the work also suffers. And so, the main thing that we want to take away here is that these individuals are just like we are as human beings. They need to have the same respect of having a W-2, which is a challenge because of the fact that this independent contracting takes a lot of benefits away,” said Puente.

“There needs to be some type of solution because we see the same problem. There's this demand that is constantly growing and it's not like it's going to go away. We have a retiring workforce that's adding to this number. Not only are they leaving, but they’re also leaving with their skills and ability to be able to teach someone what they need,” added Puente.

On immigration reform, Glenn Hamer, President and CEO of the Texas Association of Business, praised an ongoing effort by conservative Republican Representative Morgan Lutrell of Texas and Moderate Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi of New York to come up with border security and immigration legislation that can surpass the challenge of getting the 60 bipartisan Senate votes required to become law.

“Those two gentlemen have come up with three or four things that we should all be able to agree on. One, we need increased border security…The second thing is we can all agree on, we need asylum reform. It is not a great idea for people to go between ports of entry. It's extremely dangerous. It benefits the cartels and it destabilizes the government of Mexico. So we need to work on that…That's just common sense, in my opinion. And the third thing is, which we will talk about in a moment, is we need more workers in really every industry. But here we have identified three very important industries in the state of Texas and Houston, health care, construction, and energy, where the numbers are the numbers,” said Hamer.

Hamer also pointed out that these policies have overwhelming bipartisan support amongst Americans.

"The vast majority of Republicans and Democrats… And by a 69-point margin... Putin can't even get these numbers, want to see bipartisan immigration reform that improves border security and updates our asylum system. Nothing controversial there. 86% of registered voters want to see workforce solutions, in addition to the border solutions that I just mentioned. And I suspect it's because there is a commonsense amongst the American people. They understand that when they go to the hospital, when they see the roads, when they see the great energy workers that have made Texas and Houston where we stand, the energy capital of the world, that it takes all of us,” added Hamer.

Hamer also explained how expanding legal immigration pathways will help to improve border security.

“Given that we are in the greatest country in the history of the world, and people, whether they're coming from wealthy or not wealthy nations, they want to participate. The more we have a legal system and reduce the $5,000-10,000+ that the cartels get to illegally get someone into the country, that means our law enforcement can focus on the bad guys and focus on things like keeping fentanyl out of the United States,” added Hamer.

Key findings of the reports:  

• Empowering Texas: Immigrants’ Contributions to the Healthcare Industry: Immigrants will help the state’s healthcare industry meet future needs. From 2018 to 2023, there were 3.3 million unique job postings in the healthcare industry in Texas. At the same time, 4.6 percent of all job postings in the healthcare industry prioritized bilingual skills. While making up 17.2 percent of the state’s population, they make up 34.5% of physicians, 32.1% of dentists, and 30.9% of pharmacists in the state.

• Empowering Texas: Immigrants’ Contributions to the Construction Industry: Immigrants in Texas foster innovation in the construction industry. In 2022, despite making up 17.2 percent of the state’s total population, immigrants comprised 40.0 percent of all employees in the construction industry, including 39.7 percent of all entrepreneurs in the industry.  
• Empowering Texas: Immigrants’ Contributions to the Energy Industry: Immigrants bolster the state’s energy labor force. In 2022, despite making up 17.2 percent of the state’s total population, immigrants made up 32.5 percent of petroleum and mining workers and geological engineers, including mining and safety engineers, and 25.9 percent of other extraction workers.