Forbes: Fort Bend County No. 1 in Job Growth

HOUSTON - Fort Bend County takes the top spot in Forbes Magazine’s list of “Best Places to Get Ahead.”

Forbes cited the county’s 4.77 percent increase in employment since 2007 and its nearly 10-percent boost in average income.

Over the past 23 years, Fort Bend has morphed from a bedroom community into something of a boardroom community.

So says Jeff Wiley, president of the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council, while standing in front of the Minute Maid headquarters in Sugar Land.

“We have Texas Instruments, we also have Baker Hughes, Fluor and Schlumberger, a number of large corporations that people would recognize.”

Catty-corner to Minute Maid in Sugar Land’s Town Square sits Industrial Info Resources.

CEO Ed Lewis moved his company to that spot specifically to snap up Fort Bend’s educated populace as employees.

“We felt that a lot of people driving in to work every day, we could attract more qualified talented people that got tired of commuting into downtown Houston.”

Lewis says Industrial Info has added 70 jobs over the past four years, an increase of about 60-percent in the size of his Sugar Land-based workforce.