Before you get carried away with planning your move to Laredo, Texas, buying new Texas license plate covers and calling moving companies, you should take a minute and ask yourself what you're going to do for employment when you get there. You'll have a mortgage or rent payments due in Laredo, just like you do in your current city, and you'll want to have some way to pay them. Therefore, you should look into getting a job there before you even leave your old city. Here are some places to start.

Men

Men in Laredo tend to gravitate more toward intensive labor jobs than their female counterparts. Generally speaking they're more at home operating a sheet metal bender than teaching a child to read. The largest segment of the male workforce (16%) is employed in transportation while the next largest segment (13%) is employed in the construction trade. The next most popular sectors are public service, education, hospitality, and health care. These are good places to start looking for a job if you're a man.

Women

Women in Laredo and elsewhere get more satisfaction out of helping people by operating MRI shielding or teaching than they do by hammering in nails. Their most popular sector is education, with a whopping 22% of the female workforce. This is followed by health care at 13%, hospitality at 7%, retail sales at 5%, finance and insurance at 5%, public service at 5%, and transportation at 4%. If you're a woman moving to Laredo and you'd like to find a job amongst your peers, these industries are the best starting points.

Banking

One industry that has established itself quite well in Laredo and is staffed by approximately equal numbers of men and women is banking. Large amounts of money change hands between Mexican and American firms every day, so in Laredo banks aren't just a convenient place to mount a clock and a temperature calibrator outside of. They're busy institutes. There are four major ones where you can start your job search: Texas Community Bank, Laredo National Bank, International Bank of Commerce, and Falcon International Bank.

Mexican Trade

Tying in with the transportation and retail sales sectors is international trade, which accounts for most of Laredo's economic support in some way shape or form. From the import of lumber strapping systems to mount on transfer trucks to the sale of fashionable clothing in Laredo retail stores, this city is all about NAFTA and its benefits. Have a look into the treaty to see how you can make it work for your own small business.