Texas adds 80,600 jobs in February, its biggest monthly gain ever

March 30, 2013


By SHERYL JEAN 
Staff Writer

(Dallasnews.com) - Texas employment surged in February as employers added the most new jobs ever in a month.

The Texas Workforce Commission on Friday reported 80,600 new jobs across the state. That more than made up for a slow start in January, when an upwardly revised 13,800 jobs were added.

The job growth appears to be the highest monthly gain since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking such data in 1939.

Texas’ unemployment rate, however, inched up to 6.4 percent, though it was still well below the U.S. rate of 7.7 percent for February.

“The addition of over 80,000 jobs in a single month is remarkable,” said economist Ray Perryman of the Perryman Group in Waco. “While I don’t think that pace will continue, Texas is seeing ongoing expansion on several fronts.”

Texas’ employment gains last month also were the largest nationally. California was second with 41,200 jobs. Overall, employment increased in 42 states and decreased in eight states and Washington, D.C.

The widespread job growth dovetails with other improving U.S. economic data so far this year that’s lifting optimism among consumers, business owners and economists. Consumer sentiment, consumer spending, home prices, manufacturing activity, new-home sales and new durable-goods orders have all picked up.

Still, Cheryl Abbot, Dallas regional economist for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, was cautiously optimistic.

“It looks like we are building some strength, but it’s just one month,” Abbot said. Over the last 12 months, Texas has added 359,800 jobs, an increase of 3.3 percent, which is only slightly better than January’s 12-month rate of 3.2 percent, she said.

The Dallas area added 14,500 jobs in February, but that figure is not adjusted for seasonal variations as the state total is.

Economists were encouraged that Texas’ job growth was spread across many different industries, whereas last year’s gains were driven mainly by housing and energy.

Employment grew in all of the state’s 11 major industries in February, led by 25,400 jobs in professional and business services. Construction added 15,700 jobs — the eighth straight month of job gains in that category.

The strong construction numbers mean “reality holds that we’re really seeing a housing boom here in Texas,” said Jason Frederick, a senior economist for the bank BBVA Compass. “We need these workers to come in and build houses after a dearth of construction and rising demand for new homes. And it’s not just housing: The commercial real estate market also has improved, and that’s also pushing construction employment up.”

Ronny Congleton, who represents labor on the the Texas Workforce Commission, noted that strong job gains in construction help drive growth in other industries.

While the private sector continued to lead Texas’ job growth in February, government added 16,700 jobs after losing a revised 10,100 jobs in January. Most of that government growth was at the state and local level as the state rebounds from the last recession and tax revenue and collections are up, BBVA’s Frederick said.

Although Texas’ 6.4 percent jobless rate was up from 6.3 percent in January, it was down from 7.1 percent a year earlier. (The jobless rate and employment figures can diverge because they’re derived from two different government surveys.)

The slight rise in the state jobless rate doesn’t worry economist Perryman.

“The key issue is job creation,” he said. “The unemployment rate can fluctuate for a variety of reasons. Other than as a general indicator, it is not a reliable barometer of the health of the economy.”

All 27 Texas metro areas tracked by the Texas Workforce Commission reported lower unemployment rates in February, but that data is not seasonally adjusted.

The jobless rate for the Dallas area was 6.4 percent. The rate for the Fort Worth area was 6.2 percent.

Midland posted the lowest rate, 3.2 percent. The McAllen area had the highest rate, 11 percent.