Industries that use other methods of generating economic activity such as supplying a product or service on a continuous basis tend to have more stable employment trends over the short term. Industries that use contracting include Mining, Construction, Manufacturing, and Transportation and Public Utilities. Perhaps, a look at employment activity within these major industries might help to better identify businesses that operate using contracts. Within the Mining industry you find oil and gas well drilling. The Construction industry is dominated by contracting-whether building homes and apartment buildings, or completing major expansions in chemical plants and petroleum refineries.
Manufacturing has a mixture of both continuous process and contract basis operations.
Activity within the Manufacturing industry that is mostly performed through contracting includes ship building and repairing, and motor vehicle, aircraft, and railroad equipment manufacturing. Marine cargo handling within the Transportation and Public Utilities sector also experiences volatile employment patterns. This is by no means an exhaustive list of industries and businesses that use contracting as a means of generating revenue, however, they represent a majority of the industries that hire large numbers of workers which are subject to intermittent employment patterns. A glance at the employment levels for the various industries in Texas and the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA reveals the industry concentration in each area. Manufacturing is more heavily represented in the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA with 15.5 percent compared to 11.9 percent for Texas as a whole.