HOUSTON – Houston has gained 57,000 new jobs over the last 12 months, including 4,300 new jobs in June, the Texas Workforce Commission reported.
Although Houston has lost jobs in the manufacturing sector, the overall unemployment rate is low. The unemployment rate stood at 4.3 percent in June, an improvement from 5.3 percent a year earlier.
Houston gained over 100,000 new jobs in 2014, one of the strongest areas in the nation for job growth. However, a huge drop in oil prices darkened the outlook for the Houston economy. Layoffs were reported at a number of energy firms and a reduction in the amount of exploration brought caused Houston to lose manufacturing jobs.
Economic forecasters say Houston will still gain jobs in 2015, but it will be fewer than the boom of last year.
In the one of the most negative forecasts, Bill Gilmer of the University of Houston is predicting Houston will gain only 13,000 new jobs this year and the Greater Houston Partnership predicts only 20,000 to 30,000.
Editors Note: Realty News Report is predicting 50,000 new jobs will be created in Houston in 2015.
2 comments
Any stats on what type of jobs? Are these part-time? Full-time, but no benefits? In other words, are the new jobs just better than nothing?
Any paycheck is better than no paycheck, right?