Texas Job Growth Tops Nation for the Decade

While the rest of the nation fell behind, Texas continued to make strides in private sector job growth during the past 10 years.

Figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Texas leading the nation with 724,300 more net private sector jobs in December 2009 compared with one decade ago.

Of the top 10 largest states ranked by civilian labor force, only Texas and Florida had positive job growth over the 10 year period.

Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken credits economic policies for better-than-the-rest job growth.

“While the rest of the nation has only seen net growth in government jobs, Texas’ business, tax, and economic policies have created an environment where businesses can succeed and create the jobs that will allow Texas to lead our nation out of this national recession,” Pauken said.

For December, Texas showed the lowest overall seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of large states at 8.3 percent, compared to 10 percent nationally. Austin rates were steady at 6.9 percent in December.

“Our nation cannot continue to spend its way out of the recession by incurring ever increasing amounts of government debt,” Pauken said. “For more than a year now I have been warning that Washington policymakers have failed to develop an economic policy designed to encourage capital investment and private sector job creation here in the United States. We need to act quickly in order to avoid a jobless recovery.”

Source: Austin Business Journal