Texas job growth stands at 1.5 percent

By Bryan Pope, Associate Editor, Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University
August 30, 2016/Release No. 21-0816

COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (Real Estate Center) – The Real Estate Center’s latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy shows Texas gained 176,600 nonagricultural jobs from July 2015 to July 2016, an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent.
 
That's lower than the nation’s growth rate of 1.7 percent, according to the report written by Center Research Economist Dr. Ali Anari.
 
The nongovernment sector added 136,100 jobs in July, an annual growth rate of 1.4 percent compared with 1.9 percent for the nation’s private sector.
 
Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last month was 4.6 percent, up from 4.4 percent in July 2015. The nation’s rate decreased from 5.3 to 4.9 percent.
 
All Texas industries except mining and logging, manufacturing, information, and the transportation, warehousing, and utilities industries had more jobs. Leisure and hospitality ranked first in job creation followed by education and health services, financial activities, trade, and the government sector.
 
All Texas metro areas except Odessa, Midland, Texarkana, and Wichita Falls had more jobs. College Station-Bryan ranked first in job creation followed by Austin-Round Rock, Dallas-Plano-Irving, Laredo, El Paso, and Brownsville-Harlingen.
 
The state’s actual unemployment rate was 5.1 percent. Amarillo and Austin-Round Rock had the lowest unemployment rate, followed by Dallas-Plano-Irving, Lubbock, College Station-Bryan, San Antonio-New Braunfels, and Sherman-Denison.
 
The complete report is available online at https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/articles/technical-report/monthly-review-of-the-texas-economy.

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, MAnari@mays.tamu.edu (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.