Job gains start off strong for 2023
Texas employers added 48,600 jobs in January, continuing a string of monthly gains that pushed the state’s rate of job growth to 5 percent over the past year.
The Texas Workforce Commission reported the gains Friday as the U.S. Labor Department said the nation added 311,000 jobs in February, both adding to recent evidence that the nation’s economy got off to a strong start this year despite rising interest rates — and all but guaranteeing the Federal Reserve will raise rates again this month.
The gains in Texas pushed the state’s jobs total to a 16th-straight record high. Since January 2022, 654,100 jobs have been added, according to state data.
The state’s unemployment rate was 3.9 percent in January, up 0.1 percent from December. In the San Antonio-new Braunfels metro area, the rate was also 3.9 percent, up from 3.3 percent a month earlier. Both topped the national rate of 3.4 percent.
In San Antonio, the increasing unemployment rate reflected an increase in the number of people seeking work. State data showed the area’s civilian labor force added 10,000 people during the month.
Across the U.S., the Labor Department said, 419,000 people got back into the labor force, giving employers more workers to choose from and taking pressure off wage growth, which was little changed from a month earlier but remains well above pre-pandemic levels.
Friday’s reports reflected a broader picture of economic resilience that continues nearly a year after the Fed began raising interest rates in a bid to slow inflation. The rate hikes have slowed some areas of the economy, however, including housing and manufacturing.
Other large parts of the nation’s labor market — including restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes — are driving the economic growth. Such service providers were hardest hit by the pandemic and have been hiring rapidly since.
Such gains were reflected in Texas,
where January’s biggest jobs gainer was the leisure and hospitality sector. It added 8,300 jobs over the month, including 1,700 in San Antonio, where the sector is an important part of the area’s rebounding tourism economy.
It was followed by professional and business services, which grew by 8,100 jobs statewide. Construction and manufacturing added 5,900 jobs each over the month. The mining and logging sector, which includes jobs in the energy sector, added 2,500 jobs.
The state’s lowest unemployment rate of 2.7 percent was recorded in the Midland area. That was followed by Amarillo at 3.2 percent and Austinround Rock at 3.3 percent. The highest rates were in Mcallen-edinburg-mission at 7.1 percent, Beaumont-port Arthur at 6.6 percent, and Brownsville-Harlingen at 6.1 percent.