Texas gradually recovering from oil downturn

By Bryan Pope, Associate Editor, Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University
April 25, 2016/Release No. 12-0416

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ economy is slowly recovering 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 181,800 nonagricultural jobs from March 2015 to March 2016, an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent, lower than the nation’s growth rate of 2 percent. The nongovernment sector added 148,400 jobs, an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent compared with 2.3 percent for the nation’s private sector.
 
March 2016 was the third 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 impact of the downturn.
 
Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month fell to 4.3 percent from 4.4 percent a year ago. The nation’s rate decreased from 5.5 to 5 percent.
 
All Texas industries except mining and logging, manufacturing, and transportation, warehousing and utilities had more jobs. Leisure and hospitality ranked first in job creation followed by education and health services, trade, and financial activities.
 
All Texas metro areas except Victoria, Longview, Midland, and Odessa had more jobs. Dallas-Plano-Irving ranked first in job creation, followed by College Station-Bryan, Austin-Round Rock, Sherman-Denison, Killeen-Temple, and Lubbock.
 
The state’s actual unemployment rate was 4.5 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.
 
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.