Texas Unemployment Down, Latest Economic Review Shows

COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.6 percent in December 2014 from 6 percent in December 2013. The nation’s rate decreased from 6.7 to 5.6 percent.

According to the Real Estate Center’s latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy, the Texas economy gained 460,500 nonagricultural jobs from December 2013 to December 2014, an annual growth rate of 4 percent compared with 2.2 percent for the United States.

The state’s private sector added 422,400 jobs, an annual growth rate of 4.4 percent compared with 2.5 percent for the nation’s private sector.

All Texas industries had more jobs than a year ago. The state’s mining and logging industry ranked first in job creation followed by the construction industry, transportation, warehousing and utilities industry, and professional and business services industry.

All Texas metros except Wichita Falls and Abilene had more jobs as well. Midland ranked first in job creation, followed by Longview, Dallas-Plano-Irving, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown and Odessa.

The state’s actual unemployment rate last month was 4.1 percent. Midland had the lowest unemployment rate, followed by Odessa, Amarillo, Lubbock, College Station-Bryan, Victoria and San Angelo.

This story was published on RECON (Real Estate Center Online News Texas A&M University). It is reprinted here through a news partnership between RECON and Corridor News.