Houston Ranked Third In Job Growth
Houston is great place to be searching for a job as new positions continue to come available and people who want to be in the workforce are able to join in. Those new jobs have translated to a robust report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
According to the BLS’ most recent report the Houston metropolitan area ranked third in the number of jobs added to a metropolitan area in July 2013. Houston added 97,700 jobs from July 2012 to July 2013, a 3.6 percent increase.
The two other cities that ranked ahead of Houston in terms of number of jobs added were: No. 1 New York City with 189,000 jobs, and Dallas-Fort Worth ranked at No. 2 with 111,800 jobs added over the same time period.
Despite New York City coming in first with the number of jobs added, New York City is actually behind many other cities relative to its size, as it only recorded a 2.2 percent increase.
The job growth report in July helped support the fact that Houston as a metropolitan area is doing very well in adding opportunities for job seekers and maintaining a healthy economic outlook. Houston’s unemployment rate in July fell to 6.7 percent, nearly a whole point lower than the 7.4 percent unemployment rate from a year ago in July 2012 and an entire percentage point lower than the July 2013 national average of 7.7 percent.
Houston’s success is spilling over to the rest of the state as well. The state of Texas has added more jobs over the past year than any other state with 293,000. That is more than 50,000 than the second place state California, which added 236,000 jobs.
A large number of these jobs in Houston and around Texas are being created within the energy sector, focusing on Texas’s resources like natural gas and oil. Other industries that are benefiting from the energy boom are the construction and service industries.
Gillian Kruse is a freelance writer living in Houston. She graduated from Rice University with a great love for all performing and visual arts. She enjoys writing about arts and cultural events, especially little-known ones, to help Houstonians learn about what’s going on in their city.