Texas Jobs Report
Although the National economic metrics seem sluggish, a negative GDP in the last quarter of 2012 and a slight increase in the national unemployment rate, things in Texas are somewhat different. We have outpaced the national average pace on different levels. We have already recovered all the jobs lost during the recession and actually done so more than a year ago. The country still has not. We have also outpaced in GDP growth and population increase. As The Texas Economy reports:
Job growth, sales tax collections — both from business and consumer purchases — as well as automobile sales, signal that the Texas economy has emerged from the recent recession.
Another indicator that the state’s economy has been comparatively healthy was the U.S. Census Bureau report that Texas added more people (421,000) than any other state from 2010 to 2011. Although Texas has only 8 percent of the nation’s population, the state added nearly 19 percent of the nation’s population growth for the year.
By December 2011, Texas employers replaced all 427,600 jobs shed during the recession as our economy rebounded more quickly than the U.S. as a whole, and continues to add jobs. Nationally, through November 2012 only 52 percent of recession-hit jobs have been recovered.
Texas and the nation returned to economic growth in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, Texas real gross domestic product grew by 2.4 percent, compared with 1.6 percent GDP growth for the nation.
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.
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.
Although we have been doing better than the rest of the nation we are still part of the same ecosystem and a strong Nation will benefit Texas. The business environment, particularly in the Round Rock / Austin area has been prime for entrepreneurship and starting up a business. If you are looking for an office space solution in Round Rock, please call us for additional details.
