The Coordinating Board shall apply the following methodology to generate region-specific lists of Regional High-Demand Fields to be approved by the Commissioner of Higher Education:

1. (1) In consultation with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), the Coordinating Board shall examine projections of the number of persons expected to be employed in the state of Texas and in each region for each occupation.

   1. (A) These projections shall consider the ten-year employment projections most recently published by the TWC; data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS); and other relevant data regarding projected regional and state workforce needs.
   2. (B) In its examination of workforce projections, the Coordinating Board shall exclude from the analysis all occupations identified by the BLS as typically requiring, at the entry level, no high school diploma or equivalent, a high school diploma or equivalent, a bachelor's degree, or any level of graduate education, except as provided in paragraph (2) of this section.

2. (2) The Coordinating Board may include an occupation identified by the BLS as typically requiring a high school diploma or equivalent or a bachelor's degree if it meets the following criteria:

   1. (A) The BLS identifies the occupation as typically requiring a high school diploma or equivalent and either the BLS identifies the occupation as typically requiring a successfully completed apprenticeship or the TWC identifies the occupation as requiring a licensure or certification granted by an agency of this state, or other credential, or successful completion of an apprenticeship, to perform the occupation; or
   2. (B) The Coordinating Board identifies relevant data demonstrating that the occupation typically requires a license, certification, credential other than a bachelor's degree, or a completed apprenticeship, and more than one (1) public junior college operates a program intended to prepare individuals to obtain such a credential or completed apprenticeship.

3. (3) The Coordinating Board shall calculate each region's list of high-demand occupations as follows:

   1. (A) Within each region, group each occupation according to the first four (4) digits of its code under the most recent Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system as promulgated by the BLS.
   2. (B) Sum the projected change in employment for each grouping of occupations according to the first four (4) digits of SOC codes across all regions to generate a set of projections for each group of occupations across the state and rank this set from highest projected change to lowest.
4. (4) Each region's list of high-demand occupations shall consist of the ten (10) four-digit SOC groupings with the highest projected change across the state and the five (5) four-digit SOC groupings with the highest projected change within that region that do not appear among the ten (10) with the highest projected change statewide, as well as up to five (5) Essential Occupations identified by six-digit SOC codes as determined pursuant to §13.595(b) of this subchapter (relating to Essential Occupations) and any Emerging Occupations identified by six-digit SOC codes as determined pursuant to §13.596 of this subchapter (relating to Emerging Occupations).
5. (5) Each region's list of high-demand fields shall consist of all academic fields, defined as its four-digit CIP Code, that correspond to its list of high-demand occupations according to the SOC-to-CIP crosswalk most recently published by the BLS and National Center for Education Statistics, or, at the Commissioner of Higher Education's discretion, the crosswalk most recently published with a reasonable allowance of time for analysis and review. The Coordinating Board shall match a high-demand occupation to the academic fields that correspond to an occupation in the SOC-to-CIP crosswalk to which it is substantively equivalent.
6. (6) When the crosswalk used in this section does not include a high-demand occupation or does not link any academic fields to it, the Commissioner of Higher Education shall designate at least one academic field, defined as a four-digit CIP code, as being linked to the occupation and add it to the corresponding high-demand fields list if it is not already present. In making this determination the Commissioner of Higher Education may consult with appropriate subject matter experts.
7. (7) In consultation with appropriate subject matter experts, the Commissioner of Higher Education may alter the set of academic fields added to a high-demand fields list on the basis of their correspondence to an Emerging Occupation determined pursuant to §13.596 of this subchapter (relating to Emerging Occupations).

Source Note:The provisions of this §13.594 adopted to be effective May 16, 2024, 49 TexReg 3270; amended to be effective September 1, 2025, 50 TexReg 5455.