California- Texas rivalry a question of numbers
Kyle Nicely with AArrow Sign Spinners demonstrates sign spinning at the Choice Career Fair in San Antonio. Texas led California with 12- month job growth in 2014.
California is the nation’s most populous state with about 39 million residents, while Texas is No. 2 at 27 million.
California is a true blue state, politically, while Texas is among the reddest of the red when it comes to politics.
They also are rivals in many spheres outside of politics, from cuisine to music. But no competitive arena is more contentious than economics.
California tops all states in economic output at $ 2.3 trillion, while Texas is second at $ 1.6 trillion. Their economic drivers are similar in many respects — technology, medical care, agriculture and energy.
California is No. 1 in agricultural output, while Texas is No. 2.
Texas is the No. 1 state in petroleum production, while California is No. 3.
Each month, when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics releases new employment data, the California- vs.- Texas rivalry gains new fodder.
Last month, when the BLS announced revised data for 2014, several economic analysts pointed out that California, which had been clobbered by the Great Recession, had finally surpassed Texas in the creation of new jobs.
Steve Levy of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy led the cheerleading, in an analysis titled “California Vaults over Texas in Job Revisions.”
“In the December 2014 report,” Levy wrote, “Texas led California in 12- month job growth by 458,000 to 320,000. But the revised estimates released today show that California added 498,000 jobs in the 12 months ending January 2015 compared to a downward revisited 393,000 for Texas.”
Other analysts quickly pointed out that even with the revision, Texas’ employment had increased by 3.5 percent, while California trailed at 3.2 percent.
Texas’ population and labor force are only twothirds of California’s, so its seemingly smaller job numbers could translate into a higher growth rate.
The BLS released employment data for March on Friday, and Levy was back, acknowledging that Texas had created jobs faster in 2014, but adding “no more.”
“The California job surge continued in March with the addition of 38,900 jobs and a decline in the unemployment rate to 6.5 percent,” Levy wrote. “California’s job growth rate for the past year ( 3.1 percent) now exceeds the Texas growth rate ( 2.9 percent) as the state lost 25,400 jobs in March.”
There is, however, a caveat with that analysis. Even though it dropped to 6.5 percent in March, California’s jobless rate is still among the highest in the nation, while Texas’ unemployment rate declined to 4.2 percent, one of the nation’s lowest rates.
Despite the state’s job growth, 1.2 million of California’s 18.9 millionworker labor force are still unemployed, while Texas had just 558,943 unemployed in its 13.1 millionworker pool.
The debate, therefore, continues.