Updated October 3, 2014
Job growth, sales tax collections and building permits all signal that the Texas economy continues to outpace the national economy.
Over the past year, Texas added jobs in all of the 11 major industries, including professional and business services, trade, transportation and utilities, leisure and hospitality, education and health services, construction, mining and logging, government, financial activities, information, other services, and manufacturing.
Pre-recession Texas employment peaked at 10,638,100 in August 2008, a level that was surpassed in November 2011, and by July 2014 Texas added an additional 892,800 jobs. The U.S. recovered all recession-hit jobs by May 2014 and by July 2014 added an additional 639,000 jobs.
Texas and the nation returned to economic growth in 2010, 2011, and 2012. In calendar 2013, Texas real gross domestic product grew by 3.7 percent, compared with 1.8 percent for the U.S.
A Deeper Dive into Jobs
Texas replaced all of its recession-hit jobs by December 2011
The number of Texas workers reached an all-time high of 10.65 million in December 2011, a sign that employers are looking at the recent recession through a rear-view mirror.
The Texas Workforce Commission’s December 2011 employment statement reported Texas added more than 200,000 jobs in 2011. This restored the state to its pre-recession employment levels by replacing the remainder of the 427,600 jobs lost during late 2008 and throughout 2009. The two-year recovery to this point puts Texas well ahead of the national job market, which is finding it more difficult to regain jobs at the rate of Texas; just 30 percent of jobs shed nationally during the recession have been restored.
Wide variety of jobs added
Most employment sectors added workers in 2011. Particularly strong were the mining and logging sector (bolstered by oil and natural gas sector industries) that added more than 40,000 jobs and grew by 18.7 percent; professional and business services (53,100 jobs) and leisure and hospitality (41,200 jobs), which chipped in 4.1 percent and 4 percent growth, respectively, and the trade, transportation and utilities sector which added nearly 46,000 workers.
Three sectors saw a decline in employment during 2011: government shed almost 56,000 workers, while the much smaller construction (-6,300) and information (-7,900) sectors reduced workers, too.
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A Deeper Dive: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by State
Gross domestic product by state, formerly referred to as gross state product (GSP), is a broad measure of a state’s production. The “value added” that is generated by the state’s GDP represents the difference between the state’s industries gross output (e.g., industry sales and other operating income, commodity taxes, and inventory changes) and the value of the intermediate inputs (purchase of goods and services from other industries) used in producing the industries’ products.
Economic production and growth are represented by real GSP, so it can be seen as a primary indicator to gauge the health of the state economy. The term “real” refers to GSP and GDP values being indexed to a certain year (2005) to accurately reflect the rate of change. Failure to do so would lead to inflated growth rates. From 2001 to 2010, U.S. real GDP grew by 16.8 percent while Texas’ real GSP grew by 23.5 percent for the same period.