BRIEFING - Employment growth booming in Texas
From Staffing Industry Analyst

Posted on March 20, 2008

Event
Texas was home in January to the top four large metropolitan areas with fastest year-over-year job growth, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. However, the pace of growth among all metros tapered off and unemployment rates are rising.

Background and Analysis
The Austin TX area posted the largest year-over-year percentage increase in jobs in January, up 4.2%, among metropolitan areas with more than 650,000 workers according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Houston area ranked second with the number of jobs up 3.9% year-over-year January, San Antonio TX ranked third at 3.0%; and Dallas came in fourth at 2.9%.

For metropolitan areas with less than 650,000 workers, the Kennewick-Pasco-Richland area of Washington state added the highest percentage of jobs, up 6.7%. It was followed by Coeur d'Alene ID, up 6.4% and Florence SC, up 5.9%.

Detroit posted the largest percentage decrease in jobs among large metropolitan areas in January, down 1.5%. It was followed by the Tampa FL area, down 0.9%.

The January metro markets results differ slightly from previous months because the BLS stopped reporting on 65 small metropolitan areas citing budget cuts.

As far as unemployment, more areas are reporting higher rates.

According to the BLS, 55 metropolitan areas out of 369 had unemployment rates of at least 7.0% in January, up from only 46 areas in January 2007.

And 49 areas posted jobless rates of below 4.0% in January, down from 77 in January 2007.

The Washington DC area reported the lowest unemployment rate among large metropolitan areas at 3.5% in January, according to the BLS. In January 2007, Birmingham AL and Richmond VA had the lowest unemployment rates at 3.2% each.

The Detroit area had the highest jobless rate among large metro areas in January at 8.2%. It also had the highest rate in January 2007 at 8.0%.

Among states, South Dakota posted the lowest jobless rate among all states in January at 2.6%, according to the BLS. Wyoming followed it at 2.7% along with Idaho at 2.8% and Nebraska at 2.9%.

Michigan again registered the highest unemployment rate among states at 7.1% in January. Alaska ranked second-highest at 6.5% and South Carolina ranked third at 6.1%.

Year-over-year, 32 states and the District of Columbia reported higher jobless rates in January, 14 states registered lower unemployment rates, and four states had no change.

Staffing Industry Analysts Perspective
The pace of job growth is cooling. Six of the 38 large metro markets saw a decline in employment. By comparison, in 2007 only one large metro market typically saw a decline in employment – Detroit. The slower rate of job creation and higher unemployment rates underscore indicators of the slowing economy.

The outlier is Texas, where all four large metro markets – Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas – are seeing roughly 3% to 4% employment growth. High oil prices are helping, and for the moment those prices have little prospect of coming down materially, so Texas will likely remain a relatively strong market for employment services.