Texas added 44,100 jobs in January, but unemployment rate was flat

The Texas job market got off to a positive start for the year, as employers added 44,100 jobs in January, the most since May of last year, the Texas Workforce Commission said Thursday.

 The state unemployment rate remained at 8.3 percent, unchanged from the previous month. The national average was 9 percent in January, and it edged down to 8.9 percent last month.

January was the fourth straight month Texas added jobs.

The gains came in nearly all major employment categories.

“I was very encouraged by this report,” said Waco economist Ray Perryman. “The broad-based nature of the comeback was also a positive sign.”

Texas gained 15,800 jobs in trade, transportation and utilities, a category that includes the retail business. Other employment categories with expanding payrolls included education and health services, with 7,600 positions; government, with 5,500; and construction, with 3,700

The lone major category to show a monthly decline was leisure and hospitality, which shed 3,800 jobs.

 The Dallas-Fort Worth area picked up 6,200 jobs in January. The region’s unemployment rate was 8.5 percent.
Factories and energy

 Dana Johnson, chief economist of Comerica Inc., the Dallas-based financial services company, pointed to manufacturing and energy as significant engines of economic growth in Texas. The state gained 5,600 manufacturing jobs in January, plus 4,000 in mining and logging, which includes oil and gas extraction.

“Manufacturing and energy are basically the two sectors that are leading the way for Texas,” he said. “I don’t think there’s much doubt that Texas will look a little stronger than the rest of the country.”
The larger issue is whether the national economy as a whole continues to recover, Johnson said. While he and most analysts expect the economy to register healthy growth this year, there are several sources of potential weakness.
Johnson said oil prices could hurt the economy if they rise well beyond their current levels.
“Certainly, there’s a threat from the oil situation that could really hurt consumer spending,” he said.
National figures
 Nationally, payrolls expanded in 35 states and in Washington, D.C., in January, while they shrank in 15 states, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.
Texas added more jobs than any other state in the first month of the year, followed by Michigan with 39,700 jobs.
 In percentage terms, Vermont led the nation with a 1.8 percent increase in January, followed by Maine with 1.2 percent, and Idaho and Michigan, which both reported a 1 percent gain. Texas’ January job gain amounted to a 0.4 percent increase.
Nevada, at 14.2 percent, continued to register the highest jobless rate among the 50 states. California had the second-highest rate, at 12.4 percent, followed by Florida, at 11.9 percent.
The Texas Workforce Commission also released revised 2010 jobs data on Thursday. The state gained nearly 236,000 jobs between December 2009 and December 2010, according to seasonally adjusted data. That was slightly higher than the preliminary figure of almost 231,000 released in January.
According to nonseasonally adjusted data, the state had nearly 212,000 more jobs in December 2010 than it did in the same month the prior year.
 In 2009, when the severe recession slammed the state, Texas lost more than 365,000 jobs, according to revised data released Thursday.