Texas Employment Report

Note: The Texas Employment Report will be discontinued effective October 2022. Employment data can be found on the Texas Real Estate Research Center’s website and in the Center’s monthly Outlook for the Texas Economy report. Sign up to be notified when the report is published.

• Texas added 16,400 jobs in August, almost 0.12 percentage points over July. Employment grew at its slowest pace since February 2021 when growth went negative due to Winter Storm Uri.
• In August, the state’s unemployment rate increased 10 basis points to 4.1 percent. This marked the first month since the start of the pandemic where the unemployment rate did not decrease. The nation’s unemployment rate grew by 20 basis points to 3.7 percent.
• The state’s labor force expanded by almost 11,540, the slowest pace for 2022. National labor force levels expanded by 786,000, which was enough to offset job losses accrued over June and July.
• The most recent job-opening data from July signaled job creation may have peaked in April. The July count of job openings was 985,000, the fifth consecutive month where job openings hovered near the one million mark.
• There were 612,000 new job hires in July, essentially the same as June. Separations, layoffs, and quits leveled out.
• The state’s goods-producing sector added only 3,000 jobs in August, significantly fewer than the month before. Construction appears to have reached a peak at 785,000, which essentially matches February 2020’s pre-pandemic level.
• The state’s service-providing sector added 13,400 jobs in August. Professional and business services expanded by 5,200, far short of the past three months, which were each above 10,000. Retail job growth was flat while leisure and hospitality lost 3,200 jobs.

To access the complete report with figures and tables, click the download button.

Previous reports available with data from: 

2022: January, February, March, April, May, June, July
2021: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December