The February labor market data for Milam County was recently released and there are some surprising achievements in the data. “We have stated that our first objective is get some economic metrics back to levels seen before Alcoa closed,” said Rockdale Municipal Development District Board President Nathan Bland. “This is going to be total jobs in the county, manufacturing jobs and gross domestic product (GDP).”
In February, Milam County had 11,510 jobs – approximately 160 more jobs from the January report. “This is the largest number of people working in Milam County since July 2008,” Bland said. “These numbers are similar to when Alcoa was operating.” Peak manufacturing jobs in Milam County was the 3rd quarter 2000 at 1,866.
However, it is premature to declare victory for the community, cautioned Jim Gibson, the Rockdale MDD Economic Development Director. “We won’t know for a while which industry these jobs are in.” The most recent data available on the Texas Workforce Commission site is from the 2nd quarter 2024. “The most recent data say that Milam County has 257 manufacturing jobs.”
The recent announcement of T1 Energy and their new solar cell manufacturing operation should add 1,800 new manufacturing jobs to Milam County. “We can be confident that we will quickly gain back all lost manufacturing jobs – plus some,” said Rockdale Mayor Ward Roddam.
Finally, the size of the civilian labor force – the number of people who are either working or actively seeking work – is the largest since October 2008, coming in at 12,059.
“I am thrilled that we are trending in the right direction!” Mayor Roddam concluded.
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