Dallas Fed: Texas adds 10,700 jobs in April; state employment forecast revised up to 1.5 percent for 2016
For immediate release: May 20, 2016
DALLAS—Texas added 10,700 jobs in April, according to seasonally adjusted and benchmarked payroll employment numbers released today by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
The state added a revised 1,000 jobs in March. Year to date in 2016, jobs have grown at an annualized pace of 1.1 percent after growing 1.3 percent in 2015. The monthly annualized growth rate in April was 1.1 percent.
Incorporating April’s employment data, the Texas employment forecast stands at 1.5 percent growth for 2016, suggesting 179,000 jobs will be added in Texas this year. This is an upward revision from the 1.0 percent forecast that was released by the Bank in April.
“The mild pickup in job growth in April, along with a continued rise in most leading indicators, suggests that Texas job growth will improve in the coming months,” said Keith R. Phillips, Dallas Fed assistant vice president and senior economist.
Recent gains in the Texas Leading Index have been broad based. After declining modestly in February, the index rose at a strong pace in March and April.
Unemployment rates were unchanged in six of nine major Texas metro areas in April, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the Dallas Fed. Unemployment rates in Brownsville–Harlingen and Houston rose slightly in April, while the unemployment rate in El Paso fell slightly.
The Dallas Fed improves Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) payroll employment estimates for Texas by incorporating preliminary benchmarks into the data in a more timely manner and by using a two-step seasonal adjustment technique. Texas metropolitan-area unemployment rates from the BLS also are seasonally adjusted by the Dallas Fed.
The Dallas Fed releases its Texas employment forecast on a monthly basis in conjunction with the release of Texas employment data. The forecast projects job growth for the calendar year and is estimated as the 12-month change in payroll employment from December to December.
For information on the methodology for the Bank’s Texas employment forecast, visit the Dallas Fed’s website.
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Media contact:
Alexander Johnson
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Phone: (214) 922-5288
Email: alexander.johnson@dal.frb.org