Employment estimates for Houston, nation

Highest unemployment in 6 yrs

Wendy Natt, Jun 22, 09.

A Houston Economic Indicators email update from the Greater Houston Partnership (GHP) provides a breakdown of job losses and gains over the past year (May 2008 - May 2009), comparing national figures to employment estimates recently released by the Texas Workforce Commission for the Houston - Sugar Land - Baytown MSA.

The Houston area, as well as other major Texas metros, continues to fare better than the nation as a whole, according to the GHP update.

In the Houston region, the mining and logging industry, an area expected to show longer and more serious losses, may be recovering, with the addition of 2,000 exploration and production jobs, while slowdowns resulting in heavy job losses in international trade and construction in Houston continue to have ripple effects in areas like transportation, warehousing, metal products manufacturing, and architectural and engineering services.

The full text of the GHP summary:

From May ’08 to May ’09, the nation shed 5.5 million jobs, a net loss of 4.0 percent. Over the same period, Texas and its four large metro areas proved far more resilient. According to employment estimates released today by the Texas Workforce Commission, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) sustained a net loss of 2.2 percent, or 56,300 jobs; the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA was down 2.1 percent, or 62,500 jobs; and the statewide total fell 2.1 percent. The smaller San Antonio and Austin-Round Rock MSAs fared marginally better, down 0.8 percent and up 0.5 percent respectively.

Mining and logging, which in Houston is almost entirely oil and gas exploration and production and oilfield services, remains surprisingly strong, with a net over-the-year gain of 1,200 jobs (1.4 percent, versus 5.9 percent a year earlier) as the addition of 2,000 E&P jobs more than offset the elimination of 800 oilfield services jobs. Other sectors that showed gains in the face of recessionary pressures were those expected to do so—private educational services, up 2.2 percent; health care and social assistance, up 2.4 percent; and government, up 1.9 percent. Of the 6,800 jobs added in government, 5,600 were in public education.

In a recession that affects most of the industrialized world, trade is inevitably a casualty, and Houston’s prominence in international trade makes it vulnerable to declining trade. The value of goods shipped to and from the Houston-Galveston Customs District in the first four months of ’09 was down 33.5 percent from the same period last year. It’s no stretch of the imagination to link this shrinkage to net losses of 6,500 jobs in wholesale trade and 8,300 jobs in transportation and warehousing.

The worldwide credit crisis, which is no respecter of industries or regions, has shown a few signs of easing recently, but already has done much to slow construction because lending has been sparse. Houston saw the number of construction jobs fall 17,700 over the year, a drop of 8.6 percent. The construction slowdown also accounts for some share of the 4,100-job decline in fabricated metal products manufacturing and the 2,300-job shrinkage in architectural and engineering services.

In May, unemployment in both Houston and the state rose to 6.9 percent of the labor force—a level not seen in nearly six years, but still far below the national rate of 9.1 percent. (The U.S. rate is not seasonally adjusted because the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes only unadjusted data for states and local areas.)

It bears emphasis that Houston’s economy is fundamentally sound—it doesn’t need to restructure how it does business to participate fully in the inevitable national economic recovery. Once credit availability eases, Houston’s recovery will depend on energy demand growth created by a national recovery.

Employment and unemployment estimates for June are scheduled for release on July 17.

See the full list of Houston Economic Indicators for June 19, 2009 from the Greater Houston Partnership.