Texas Gradually Recovering From Oil Downturn

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ economy is slowly recovering from the impact of the 2015 oil price collapse. The state gained 181,800 non-agricultural 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 non-government sector added 148,400 jobs, an annual growth rate of 1.5 percent compared with 2.3 percent for the nation’s private sector.

According to the Real Estate Center’s latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy, 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.

This article originally published by RECON of Texas A&M.