The Texas Squeeze: A series examining the high cost of high growth in North Texas.Editor’s note: This story will be updated.Texas added 72,800 jobs in July as the labor market continued to expand and the state’s unemployment rate ticked down slightly to 4%, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.While the monthly gains were the second highest this year, they were lower than the previous month. In June, Texas added nearly 92,000 positions after an upward revision.Texas had over 13.5 million nonfarm workers in July, setting a record for total employment for the ninth consecutive month. In July, the state had nearly 547,000 more workers than it did in February 2020, just before the pandemic hit.Nearly every major job category reported gains last month, led by mining and logging. In Texas, that’s primarily the oil and gas business, which has been booming because of strong demand for energy — and high prices.In Dallas-Fort Worth, inflation rose 9.4% on an annualized basis in July, a faster clip than the U.S. Prices for electricity, gasoline and other energy services have soared over 40% in the past year.Mining and logging in Texas had a net gain of 6,300 workers last month, a whopping 2.9% increase from June to July. Year over year, mining and logging jobs have grown nearly 22%, over three times faster than the state’s overall job market, the workforce commission said.Health care, which has been slow to recover from the pandemic, was among the growth leaders last month. Its category, education and health services, added 14,300 positions, a monthly gain of 0.8% …
Texas adds 72,800 jobs in July – The Dallas Morning News
