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Texas showing signs of economic recovery

By Bryan Pope, Associate Editor, Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University
May 26, 2016/Release No. 15-0516

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ economy is slowly showing signs of recovery from the impact of the 2015 oil price collapse.
 
According to the Real Estate Center’s latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy, the state gained 187,500 nonagricultural jobs from April 2015 to April 2016, an annual growth rate of 1.6 percent, lower than the nation’s growth rate of 1.9 percent.
 
The nongovernment sector added 154,000 jobs, an annual growth rate of 1.6 percent compared with 2.2 percent for the nation’s private sector.
 
April was the fourth month the state’s economy posted an annual employment growth rate exceeding the annual growth rate in December 2015, indicating that the Texas economy has passed the worst of the downturn.
 
Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in April was 4.4, the same rate as in April 2015. The nation’s rate decreased from 5.4 to 5 percent.
 
All Texas industries except mining and logging, manufacturing, and information industry had more jobs in April 2016 than in April 2015. Leisure and hospitality ranked first in job creation followed by education and health services, trade, other services, construction, and financial activities.
 
All Texas metro areas except Longview, Midland, and Odessa had more jobs last month than a year ago. Dallas-Plano-Irving ranked first in job creation followed by Austin-Round Rock, College Station-Bryan, Lubbock, and Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood.
 
The state’s actual unemployment rate was 4.2 percent. Amarillo had the lowest unemployment rate, followed by Austin-Round Rock, Lubbock, College Station-Bryan, Dallas-Plano-Irving, and San Antonio-New Braunfels.
 
The complete economic report is online at https://assets.recenter.tamu.edu/Documents/Articles/1862.pdf.

Funded primarily by Texas real estate licensee fees, the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University was created by the state legislature to meet the needs of many audiences, including the real estate industry, instructors, researchers and the general public. The Center is part of Mays Business School at Texas A&M University.
 
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Real Estate Center
Gary Maler, 979-845-9691 (director)
Dr. James Gaines, 979-845-2079 (chief economist/residential)
Dr. Ali Anari, 979-845-2094 (econometrics)
Attorney Judon Fambrough, 979-845-2007 (legal issues)
Dr. Charles Gilliland, 979-845-2080 (rural land)
Dr. Harold Hunt, 979-847-9021 (commercial)
Dr. Luis Torres, 979-845-7972 (econometrics)
 
For information on the Real Estate Center, contact Senior Editor David S. Jones at 979-845-2039 (voice), 979-845-0460 (fax) or d-jones@tamu.edu. Or contact Associate Editor Bryan Pope, 979-845-2088 (office) or b-pope@tamu.edu.
 
Thousands of pages of data are available at the Center’s web site. News is also available in our electronic newsletter, our twice-weekly e-newsletter RECON (with RSS feed), our weekly Real Estate Red Zone podcast, on Facebook, daily NewsTalk Texas (with RSS feed) and on Twitter. To request a free press subscription to our quarterly flagship periodical Tierra Grande magazine, contact David Jones at the e-mail address above.
 
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