Four influential voices delivered a clear message about what Texas needs to support its economic future. Texas can keep growing only if it continues investing in people, from child care workers and high school students to midcareer adults and second-chance job seekers.
The remarks came Wednesday during the 30th anniversary celebration for Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas. The luncheon brought together business, education and government leaders who have spent decades building a regional workforce system that now spans 14 counties.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas economist Pia Orrenius delivered a keynote address on Texas’ long-term growth, followed later by a conversation with Texas Workforce Commission Chair Joe Esparza and Governor’s Office economic development official Terry Zrubek. Phedra Redifer, executive director of Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas, grounded those big picture themes in the realities of the region.
Orrenius, a vice president and senior economist at the Dallas Fed, set the scene with a long view of Texas growth. She showed that for decades the state has consistently added jobs and expanded its economy faster than the rest of the country, even as it cycled through recessions, oil busts and a pandemic.
Texas’ outperformance did not happen by accident. Over time, the state shifted from an economy anchored in “cotton, cattle and oil” to what Orrenius described as a modern industrial powerhouse. The state layered in high-tech industries, a growing transportation and logistics sector, advanced services such as finance and insurance, and a reinvented energy mix that includes leading positions in wind and solar alongside oil and gas.
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Pia Orrenius, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas labor economist, gives a keynote speech during a Workforce Development Awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Hurst.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Orrenius said the state’s real advantage has been its ability to adapt. Texas diversified its industries, capitalized on its central geography and ports, and attracted workers from other states and countries. Even within energy, she noted, technology has radically changed production, allowing Texas to become the top oil producer in the world while employing far fewer people in traditional drilling.
But Orrenius also warned that some of the tailwinds behind that story are fading. Population growth, especially from migration, is slowing sharply after record highs. Texas also consistently lags behind in the national share of younger workers with college degrees. Meanwhile, many people are voicing uncertainty about the rapid spread of artificial intelligence.
“There is so little that we understand still about how it’s going to affect us,” she said, calling it “the biggest change of our lifetimes” for anyone who deals with workforce development. “The future really depends on the ability to change.”
On the policy front, Esparza, the workforce commission chair and the commissioner representing employers, framed labor as the question companies ask first when they size up communities.
In his view, Texas has an answer only because of tight partnerships between local workforce boards, colleges, economic development groups and elected officials. Esparza praised county judges, mayors and legislators for supporting policies that allow businesses to grow.
But he highlighted the cost of gaps in the labor system. Child care, he said, is one of the most serious barriers keeping willing workers on the sidelines. Inadequate access to child care is costing Texas an estimated $11.4 billion a year in lost productivity and revenue for parents, businesses and taxpayers, according to the University of Texas at Austin.
Joe Esparza, left, Texas Workforce Commission chair, and Terry Zrubek, Texas Economic Development and Tourism Office deputy executive director, speak during a Workforce Development Awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Hurst.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
“About 60% of working parents would be in the workforce if they were to find child care,” Esparza said.
Esparza cast the commission’s task as making it easier for people who want to work to connect with jobs. That includes parents who cannot find child care, residents in rural communities who must travel hours to get training, and people leaving incarceration who need a path to stable employment.
Zrubek, deputy executive director for Texas Economic Development and Tourism in the Office of the Governor, reinforced that the workforce now sits at the center of the state’s economic strategy. He told the crowd that “workforce is the most important” pillar in Gov. Greg Abbott’s strategic plan, which includes business, entrepreneurship, innovation and infrastructure.
He credited coordination among state agencies and local partners, along with the depth of universities and community colleges, for convincing global firms that they can find and train the people they need.
That matters, because many of the advanced manufacturing, semiconductor and data center projects that are choosing Texas are interested in the state’s ability to move quickly on basics such as power, water, permitting and talent, he said.
“They’re seeing what we have, and they’re reinvesting,” he said, describing how Samsung investments in Taylor, Texas, were followed by a rush of commitments from major institutions that saw long-term opportunity.
Phedra Redifer, Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas executive director, speaks during a Workforce Development Awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, in Hurst.
Angela Piazza / Staff Photographer
Local leaders brought the conversation back to what all of that means for North Central Texas. Redifer reminded the audience that the 14-county region includes urban, suburban and rural communities that “do not necessarily share the same challenges, but they do share one economy and one talent market.”
Businesses and job seekers who want to plug into job fairs, internships, training and other programs can visit the WSNCT website to find the services that keep Texas growth rooted in real opportunity.
This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.