Almost 60 million sq. ft. of office space is sitting empty in the city. :
(Bloomberg)—Houston is counting on industries outside the oilfield to employ residents of America’s fourth-largest city as the Texas shale boom sputters. “The situation Houston faces today is eerily similar to what it faced after the 1980s bust -- an oversaturated real estate market, a bleak outlook for oil and gas, and the need for innovation to drive the economy forward,” the Greater Houston Partnership said in a report Thursday. The civic group forecasts 4,000 oilfield jobs will disappear by the end of next year.