Employment growth helps Texas economy outpace nation's

By David S. Jones | columnist

Employment in the Texas private sector is keeping the state's job growth headed in the right direction.

In his Monthly Review of the Texas Economy for October, Ali Anari, Ph.D., says the state added 166,000 jobs during the fiscal year ending in September.

"That's an annual growth rate of 1.6%," says the Real Estate Center research economist. "Over the same period, the U.S. economy gained 321,000 jobs, an annual growth rate of 0.2%.

"The private sector posted an annual employment growth rate of 1.9%," reports Anari, "compared with 0.5% for the U.S. private sector during the year."

Texas' seasonally adjusted unemployment was 8.1% in September, unchanged from September last year. Meanwhile, the nation's September-to-September rate decreased from 9.8% to 9.6%.

"All Texas industries except trade, construction, and information had more jobs in September 2010 than they did 12 months earlier," Anari points out. "Mining and logging ranked first in job creation with an annual employment growth rate of 14.1%. The average number of active rotary rigs increased from 379.4 in October 2009 to 687.96 (in October 2010)."

The complete report is available online free at http://recenter.tamu.edu/econ/