Civilian Labor Force (CLF): The most recent civilian labor force estimates from TWC for Texas statewide in July 2003 is 11,104,209 which is an increase in the labor force of 212,455 persons since July 2002.  This represents a 2.0 percent change in Texas during this time period. Freestone County had a civilian labor force of 9,380 for July 2003 which was a change of 447 in CLF since July 2002.  This change represented an increase of 5.0 percent for the study area.

The City of Fairfield is a member of the TWC Heart of Texas local workforce board area.

Industries: The reported wage and salary employment distribution for the Freestone County region by major industry sector for 1st Quarter 2001 is as follows:

Economic Diversification: Relative to the Texas economy, the CDR economic diversification index measures the degree to which a county economy is diversified.  Significant concentrations of employment in only one or two industrial sectors makes an area less diversified and more susceptible to widespread economic decline should a key sector suffer a significant loss.  While economic diversification or a balanced distribution of employment across all major industry sectors, is generally desirable, in some cases, especially where a region is exploiting a comparative advantage (such as access to raw materials, access to transportation routes, etc.) a statistically diverse economy does not necessarily correlate with higher growth.  Of the three levels of diversification ranging from below average, average and above average, Freestone County had an economic base which is of above average diversity.

Occupations: The best source of occupational information at the county level is from the 2000 Census.  The total number of persons 16 years of age or older who were employed in Freestone County during the 2000 Census was 6,967.  The following presents a table of those employed by occupational categories for this region compared to statewide percentages: