San Antonio’s economy made one of the biggest climbs in productivity among the 50 largest U.S. cities over the past 15 years, according to a report out Wednesday.
The city ranked 35th on the project’s list of most productive workforces for 2022, putting it below the national average.
New Orleans improved its productivity rank the most during the 2007-2022 period, the report said, followed by Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Portland, Ore.; Columbus, Ohio; and Fresno, Calif.
“San Antonio,” the report says, “has been growing across a diverse array of sectors, ranging from manufacturing to technology, finance and insurance. Its status as a cybersecurity hub attracts many of the best and brightest in a high-productivity field that is growing in importance.”
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It also calls out “the city’s noted collaborations among civic, academic and business entities” which it says “allow for rapid innovation, which is then borne out in its economic output.”
The report says San Antonio’s productivity increased 16.6 percent in the 15-year period.
Rounding out the top 10 by productivity growth were Cincinnati, Oklahoma City and Cleveland.
Austin moved up eight places, putting it at No. 11 by growth. It ranked 14th among most productive workforces. Houston fell two places to land at No. 30 for growth. It ranked fourth for productivity. Dallas fell three places to No. 31 by growth and was 16th for productivity.
The institute — part of the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina — said economists cite productivity as the single most important determinant of a society’s standard of living. But while the U.S. has seen productivity rise nearly every year since 1889, it said, national numbers tend to obscure differences among cities and the factors that produce those variations.
It said the report suggests that cities commonly portrayed as being in decline, such as New Orleans and several within the Rust Belt, have transitioned away from less productive sectors toward areas such as technology and advanced manufacturing. That has led to productivity gains for those cities, which may indicate that they are gathering momentum for a comeback.
“The story of productivity from 2007 to 2022 is not uniformly positive or negative. The bad news is that, to date, the divergence in productivity between the have and the have-not cities continues to grow,” the report concludes. “The good news is that some (areas) may be poised to catch up to the leaders. First, the list of top gainers suggests that some areas have been making investments that are yielding marked productivity gains. Second, cities that have experienced hardship… offer evidence that increased productivity can be realized through the development of new industries.”