Beacon Employment Report Texas

The Texas labor market posted strong gains in September. Total nonfarm employment in the state rose by 95,800 positions over the month, representing the largest monthly increase in payrolls since March 2021.

“This was a very encouraging month in the state, with broad job gains across many sectors,” said Taner Osman, Research Manager at Beacon Economics. “And with seasonal tailwinds about to pick up speed, it is looking likely that Texas will have replaced all of the jobs it lost during the pandemic by the end of this year.”

Of the 1,452,600 jobs that Texas lost at the onset of the pandemic, 1,339,900 (92.2%) have been recovered, September figures reveal. Comparatively, the nation has recuperated 77.8% of the jobs lost between February and April of 2020, illustrating Texas’ relative resiliency. As of September 2021, there were 112,700 fewer people employed in the state’s economy than there were in February 2020 and 0.9% fewer jobs in the state. This compares to 3.4% fewer jobs nationally.

Texas’s strong employment growth in September contributed to a decrease in the unemployment rate, which fell to 5.6% in the latest numbers. This leaves the state’s unemployment rate elevated relative to the national economy, where the unemployment rate fell from 5.2% to 4.8% in September. However, the national unemployment rate dropped because people left the labor force. The unemployment rate in Texas dropped even as the labor force expanded, albeit marginally. The state’s total civilian labor force rose to 14,166,005 (+0.3% growth) in the latest numbers. Prior to the pandemic, Texas had an unemployment rate of 3.7%.  

The Beacon Employment Report | Texas is a unique analysis of Texas’ employment numbers and trends. Each month, we link our own econometric predictions to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Labor Market Information Division of the Texas Workforce Commission to identify important changes in employment across industries and regions. The Beacon Employment Report is also one of the few analyses that uses seasonally adjusted numbers, which are critical to revealing accurate trends and insights within data. The analysis is a sample of the kind of research available from Beacon Economics.