AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Workforce Commission released Texas labor market data for November 2015. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Fiscal Policy Economist Dr. Vance Ginn issued the following statement:
“Texas continues to defy those who wish to hail the demise of the state’s model of no personal income tax, low taxes overall, limited government spending, and less regulation from the drop in oil prices with yet another month of positive job creation in November. The 16,300 net nonfarm jobs created last month brings the remarkable streak of more jobs added to 60 out of the last 62 months contributing to the state’s 4.6 percent unemployment rate being at or below the national average for 107 straight months.
“Although the mining and logging industry, which is dominated by the oil and gas sector, has lost 30,300 jobs during the last 12 months, the industry has reason for optimism as Congress looks poised to lift the arcane 40-year ban on oil exports. Considering the oil and gas sector has been a bright spot in an otherwise dismal national economic recovery with Texas creating a large share of U.S. jobs since the Great Recession, lifting the ban will likely help boost job creation in Texas and nationwide.”
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.