AUSTIN – Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released state-level labor market data for October 2018.
The report found Texas employers in the public and private sectors created 32,300 net nonfarm jobs last month bringing the net number of jobs created in the last 12 months to the most of any state at 384,800 jobs. This job growth contributed to the unemployment rate falling to a record low of 3.7 percent.
Vance Ginn, Ph.D., Texas Public Policy Foundation’s senior economist and director of the Center for Economic Prosperity issued the following statement:
“Today’s state-level jobs report proves what Texans already know, the Texas Model of limited government supports prosperity. The jobs numbers released today brings the annualized private sector job creation rate up to a robust 3.7 percent, as Texas continues to hold a top spot nationwide. All of this job creation has helped push the unemployment rate down to the state’s record low of 3.7 percent.”
The Texas Workforce Commission reports Texas’ unemployment rate of 3.7 percent in October is the lowest rate since record-keeping began in 1976 and has now been at or below 5 percent — considered to be full employment — for 51 straight months. Texas has had positive job creation in 99 of the last 105 months, or 28 consecutive months of positive annual job creation.
The unemployment rates in major Texas metro areas remained declined from last month: Austin-Round Rock at 2.7 percent, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington at 3.2 percent, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land at 3.8 percent, and San Antonio-New Braunfels at 3.1 percent.