AUSTIN – The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released state-level labor market data for October 2014. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy Economist Dr. Vance Ginn issued the following statement:
“Texas continues to add jobs at a healthy rate. During the last twelve months, employers across this great state created a record 421,900 net nonfarm jobs. Additionally, the state’s unemployment rate has fallen by 1.1 percent to 5.1 percent during the last year, making it at or below the national average for a remarkable 94 consecutive months.
“Poverty isn’t reduced by handing out more government welfare or by artificially raising the legal minimum wage. It’s reduced by having a job. These employment results today show that to benefit all Texans, especially the neediest among us, legislators should improve the Texas model that has provided so much prosperity by focusing on improving opportunities to find employment. This would be achieved by eliminating the margin tax, effectively limiting state spending, passing school choice legislation, and finding privately funded ways to improve employment training. These are the steps necessary to take Texas further down the path to helping the poor and all Texans succeed.”
Vance Ginn, Ph.D. is an Economist in the Center for Fiscal Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.