Despite the current challenges— from geopolitical tension to tariffs—the Texas labor market is holding relatively steady (even with a modest recent monthly decline in June) and even improving in many areas. Texas added 232,500 jobs over the past 12 months, representing a 1.6% growth rate that was significantly above the national rate (0.6%). In addition, a wide range of industries are adding jobs, always a positive signal.
At the same time, the number of job openings across the state has fallen slightly. Lest this feels like a concern, let me hasten to add that excessive job openings are an indicator that the labor force is too small to meet the needs of businesses. As a result, economic expansion is curtailed.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) regularly tracks both job openings and labor turnover, which, even though they don’t always mesh together well, is commonly known as JOLTS (sometimes, we just can’t help ourselves). Texas had 575,000 job openings in June. The number of unemployed persons per job opening in Texas was 1.1, compared to a US average of 0.9. With slightly more unemployed persons than openings, the state is in a generally healthy position compared to areas such as California (with 1.5 unemployed people per opening), Nevada (1.4), Michigan (1.4) or Washington (1.3).
