COLLEGE STATION (Real Estate Center) – Texas’ economy gained 174,900 jobs from October 2009 to October 2010, according to the Real Estate Center’s latest monthly review of the state’s economy.
That’s an annual growth rate of 1.7 percent. The U.S. economy gained 626,000 jobs, an annual growth rate of 0.5 percent, over the same period.
The state’s private sector posted an annual employment growth rate of 2.1 percent compared with 0.9 percent for the U.S. private sector from October 2009 to October 2010.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Texas was 8.1 percent in October 2010, the same as in October 2009, while the nation’s rate decreased from 10.1 to 9.6 percent over the same period.
All Texas industries except the trade and information industries and the government sector had more jobs in October 2010 than in October 2009. The state’s mining and logging industry ranked first in job creation followed by the state’s professional and business services, manufacturing, and education and health services industries.
All Texas metro areas except El Paso and Lubbock had more jobs in October 2010 than in October 2009. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos ranked first in job creation followed by Odessa, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texarkana, and Brownsville-Harlingen.
The state’s actual unemployment rate in October 2010 was 7.9 percent. Midland had the lowest unemployment rate followed by Amarillo, College Station-Bryan, Lubbock and Abilene.