Houston Truck Deals is the primary online resource for the best truck and equipment deals.
We’re looking at the results of the Texas Workforce Commission’s 2010 Economic Activity Review for 2010:
The Houston region weathered the economic recession relatively well, and through 2010 demonstrated advance economic signs of recovery well ahead of most of the country. The Texas Workforce Commission announced the results of the area’s job creation last year, and the numbers show that tens of thousands of jobs were added last year. This job creation trend is continuing into 2011 and that is the really good news for the region.
For the year to December 2010, the Houston area added 46,300 new jobs – an increase of 1.8%. The numbers are based upon payroll tax filings, and the underlying data also demonstrates that job creation activity is far wider in range than was thought to be the case; this is also a positive indicator for the region’s economic return to growth and stability.
In keeping with the rate of increase in new job creation, the unemployment rate for the Houston area also declined to 8.3%. This is an already too high level of unemployment, however the national average has been touching 10% which demonstrates just hard hit the economy as a whole has been affected by the recession and just how much further down the road to economic recovery Houston already is.
The bottom line for Houston is that the area is also attracting labor as fast as it can create new jobs. This is also helping employers already in the area, because they do not have to worry about labor constraints when they are creating business plans. The availability of skilled labor is also making Houston a destination for new investment and providing a welcoming home for new businesses starting up.
Houston benefits immensely from its association with big oil. Jobs have been rapidly increasing in energy and the energy support sectors. 2010 saw over 5,700 jobs created in the exploration and production sides of the oil and gas industry alone. What is particularly encouraging is that this rise is in the face of the cutback in offshore work as a result of the offshore drilling ban after the BP oil disaster.
Houston’s status as a major industrial port and the Port of Houston has also been experiencing double-digit increases in both imports and exports; either way, the business activity emanating from the port has dramatically contributed to the region’s growth too. One area of the local economy which is affected is that the number of public jobs has shrunk dramatically over the same period of time, and this is a trend also expected to continue with very tight fiscal policies being implemented by legislators and local government bodies.
Comments on this entry are closed.