Texas Private Employers Add 160,400 Jobs in a Year as Government Payrolls Shrink
Texas added 154,300 jobs in the year through September, all of it and more from private employers, while government payrolls fell by 6,100.
Texas employers added 154,300 nonfarm jobs in the 12 months through September, an annual growth rate of 1.1 percent, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday. That outpaced the national rate by 0.8 percentage points.
Every one of those jobs, and more, came from the private sector. Private employers added 160,400 jobs over the year, a gain of 1.3 percent, according to the commission’s tables. Government employment in Texas fell by 6,100 over the same period.
Where the growth came from
Professional and business services led the year with 69,400 new jobs, up 3.3 percent. Trade, transportation and utilities added 28,600, leisure and hospitality 24,900, private education and health services 18,100, and construction 15,000. The information sector lost 8,700 jobs over the year, and financial activities lost 2,000.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.4 percent. The civilian labor force stood at 15,948,400 after adding 15,800 people in September.
A softer September
The month itself was weaker than the year. Texas shed 11,100 jobs in September, leaving 14,461,300 on nonfarm payrolls. Manufacturing added 4,700 jobs, the largest private gain of the month. Government lost 5,900 and private education and health services lost 4,800. The commission notes that all of its estimates are subject to revision.
“The addition of more than 154,000 jobs over the year reflects balanced growth across Texas industries,” said Joe Esparza, the commission’s chairman.
What the split shows
The headline figure is a state total, but the detail underneath it says more. Over the past year, the Texas economy grew while Texas government payrolls got smaller. The jobs came from businesses that chose to hire in Texas, in services, trade, hospitality, health care and construction, not from a public payroll.
That pattern matters for the question independence raises about whether Texas can stand on its own. A state economy that adds jobs faster than the union as a whole, and does it in the private sector, is building the base an independent Texas would draw on.
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