COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – The Texas economy gained 331,100 nonagricultural jobs from April 2012 to April 2013, an annual growth rate of 3.1 percent compared with 1.6 percent for the United States.
According to the Real Estate Center’s latest Monthly Review of the Texas Economy, the state’s private sector added 312,200 jobs, an annual growth rate of 3.5 percent compared with 2 percent for the nation’s nongovernment sector.
Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent in April from 7 percent a year earlier. At the national level, unemployment decreased from 8.1 to 7.5 percent.
All Texas industries except the transportation, warehousing and utilities industry had more jobs last month than a year ago. The state’s construction industry ranked first in job creation, followed by the mining and logging industry, leisure and hospitality services industry, and professional and business services industry.
All Texas metro areas except Wichita Falls, Texarkana and Beaumont-Port Arthur had more jobs last month than in April 2012. Midland ranked first in job creation, followed by Odessa, Fort Worth-Arlington, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown and Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos.
The state’s actual unemployment rate in April was 6.1 percent. Midland had the lowest unemployment rate followed by Odessa, Amarillo, Abilene, Lubbock, San Angelo and College Station-Bryan.