The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says Texas has rebounded from hiccups late last year caused by slumping oil prices and the uncertainty over the future of trade policy, and is now riding new strength in energy and manufacturing for a strong finish to 2017, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The state added 24,500 jobs in May, according to the Dallas Fed, which revised upward April job growth to 20,800 jobs.That is far stronger than the state's job growth in 2016 and in the early months of 2017.
“Job growth has been quite robust over the first five months of the year, averaging 2.5 percent,” said Keith R. Phillips, Dallas Fed assistant vice president and senior economist. “With the recent uptick in the leading index and sustained recovery in the energy and manufacturing sectors, we expect this good pace of growth to continue in the second half of the year. Last year, jobs grew only 1.2 percent.”
For a while earlier this year and late in 2016, Texas was growing at a slower rate than the nation as a whole...prompting Democratic leaders to declare the death of the 'Texas Miracle' economy, and begin heaping scorn on the state's Republican leadership, but the Fed says the state's full year job creation for the entire year of 2017, expecging growth of 2.6%, and potentially, depending on energy prices and other factors, up to 3.6%. That compares to last year's sluggish 1.2 percent growth.
In San Antonio, the city's economy has also regained it footing. Metro unemployment in the eight county metro, according to the Dallas Fed, now stands at 3.8%, lower than all major metros in the state except for Austin.
But San Antonio is seeing new job growth, while job creation in Austin has been flat over the past year.
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