How will San Antonio’s economy grow by 2030?
Greater:SATX, an organization that works with local governments and businesses to bring more jobs to San Antonio and the surrounding region, is trying to answer that question with a new five-year plan.
That includes attracting new companies and supporting workforce development, said President and CEO Sarah Carabias Rush. But over the next five years, Greater:SATX will also try to bring more corporate headquarters to town.
“We will lean in harder and more specifically in headquarter recruitment,” Carabias Rush, who was named CEO last year, said in a December interview.
Companies like Valero, H-E-B and USAA have headquarters in San Antonio, but other cities in Texas are ahead of the Alamo City. Austin, Dallas and Houston all have more Fortune 500 company headquarters, according to Fortune Magazine.
AT&T, for example, left San Antonio for Dallas in 2008. The company plans to move its headquarters again to Plano in 2028. Other company’s have struggled after establishing headquarters in San Antonio — DeLorean Motor Company had to withdraw from city and county tax incentive projects in 2024 when it was unable to deliver on its end of the agreement.
Carabias Rush said company headquarters bring high-paying jobs that tend to have ripple effects in an economy. Business executives employ others or pay for more services and may be more involved with local philanthropy.
Attracting those opportunities is hard, Carabias Rush said. It takes time and specific, targeted sales.
“You have to solve the problem they’re facing. No one is going to pick up and move a headquarters for no reason,” she said.
Greater:SATX is going to try and find those reasons, though. One selling point is San Antonio’s strong culture, she said. Adding flights at San Antonio International Airport is another key part of that effort.
“When you think about, particularly our headquarters goal, but for all business … when you take a trip, you want to get there without any stops,” Carabias Rush said.
Greater:SATX is advocating for more nonstop destinations, including a transatlantic flight. The San Antonio International Airport will add an Air Canada flight to Toronto starting in May, but lost a shortlived transatlantic flight to Germany in 2024.
The organization will also maintain a recent focus on workforce development — supporting educational opportunities to create a more skilled workforce for San Antonio’s current companies and prospective employers who might want to come to the city.
Carabias Rush took time to reflect on the last five years, as well.
Certain sectors in San Antonio, especially manufacturing, have grown, according to both Carabias Rush and data from the city’s economic development department.
One of Greater:SATX’s primary functions is supporting businesses that want to set up shop in San Antonio. In the last five years, Carabias Rush said the organization supported 118 projects in Bexar County and its neighboring counties. Collectively, those projects employ or plan to employ around 20,000 new workers.
Greater:SATX measures San Antonio relative to a group of peer cities like Austin, Charlotte, Dallas and Denver, among others. She says San Antonio has seen higher population and job growth than other cities.
The City of San Antonio’s Economic Development Department has tracked those same growth indicators over the past five years, according to Celeste Garcia, communications manager for that department.
“The San Antonio-New Braunfels region has seen growth in population and jobs from 2019 to 2024,” Garcia said in an email. “The region saw a five-year growth rate of 8% for population and a 7% growth rate for jobs. These growth rates are expected to remain constant from 2024-2029, outpacing national growth.”
If those indicators hold, the department expects that by 2031, San Antonio could add 60,000 new jobs and 188,000 new residents.
