Although the daily headlines may reflect such matters as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or the World Cup taking place in South Africa, there is one topic that is rarely off the interest radar for most Americans. That subject matter, of course, is employment.
The level of concern about jobs has risen substantially since the recession began in December 2007. Over the past couple of years, it seems that almost every news cycle brought the topic closer and closer to home as Texans, as well as people across America, heard about layoffs, business closings, foreclosures, rising unemployment, and belt tightening due to worsening economic conditions.
Within a year after the word “recession” had entered our daily conversations, the number of unemployed had climbed from 7.7 million to approximately 11.1 million and the nation’s unemployment rate had risen from 5.0% to 7.2%. By December 2009, the number of people without jobs had grown to some 15 million while the unemployment rate hovered around 10.0%.
Over the past five months, the economic skies have brightened, though there are still shadowy clouds on the horizon. In May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 431,000 workers were added to the nation’s wage and salary payrolls, reflecting the fifth consecutive month of job growth. Unemployment was at 9.7%, the same rate as the first three months of the year. Unfortunately, much of that growth was in temporary Census workers, but the national employment picture has improved some in recent months.
For the Lone Star State, the employment data released this past week was even more pleasant. Throughout the recession, Texas has fared somewhat better than many areas and the 43,600 jobs added in May, the fifth consecutive month of positive growth, indicates that this pattern is continuing.
In January, Texas was cited by the Department of Labor as the state with the largest growth in private sector jobs among all states for the previous decade. From December 1999 to December 2009, about 724,300 net private sector jobs were created, a 9.30% overall gain. During this same period, the US experienced a 1.41% private employment loss.
The substantial job hike in May gave Texas the largest over-the-month increase in wage and salary employment among all states. California, New York, Florida, and Virginia followed with the number of added workers varying from 28,300 to 20,300. Thirty-six other states also experienced positive job growth in May.
Preliminary data just provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that in the past 12 months, several Texas industries achieved positive net employment gain. They include professional and business services, education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government. In fact, this is the first year-over-year gain in quite some time.
Last month in Texas, jobs were added in nine major industries with professional and business services achieving a fifth straight job gain. Other notable increases in workers were realized by leisure and hospitality and trade, transportation, and utilities industries. This broad expansion is in sharp contrast to the US and its reliance on short-term federal positions.
With approximately 11.2 million Texans currently employed, the most in the history of the state, the unemployment rate remained at 8.3% last month, well below the nation’s 9.7% status. Other state unemployment rates for May ranged from 3.6% (North Dakota) to 14.0% (Nevada). Eight states had unemployment rates significantly higher than the nation as a whole.
Since the beginning of 2010, about 114,100 new jobs have been created across the Lone Star State. Such ongoing employment growth is certainly good news for Texas and likely marks the onset of ongoing expansion at a reasonable pace for the foreseeable future.