Dallas Fed: Texas adds 42,500 jobs in April; state employment forecast rises to 3.6 percent for 2018
For Immediate Release: May 18, 2018
DALLAS—Texas added 42,500 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 26,600 jobs in March. That brings the year-to-date annualized growth rate to 3.7 percent.
Incorporating April employment growth of 4.2 percent and leading index data, the Texas Employment Forecast suggests jobs will grow 3.6 percent this year (December/December), with an 80 percent confidence band of 2.5 to 4.7 percent.
“Texas job growth picked up in April, and year to date the state has added 151,200 jobs—the most over a four-month period since the end of 2014,” said Keith R. Phillips, Dallas Fed assistant vice president and senior economist. “Combined with continued growth in the leading index, this makes it very likely that job growth will be strong in the second half of 2018.”
“Energy jobs continue to accelerate sharply, growing at a double-digit rate year to date. Energy-producing areas of the state such as Midland and Odessa are booming. Houston, which has about 25 percent of all jobs in the state, is now the fastest-growing major metro in Texas so far this year at 4.5 percent.”
Unemployment rates ticked down in four of the nine major Texas metro areas but were flat in the remaining areas in April, according to seasonally adjusted numbers from the Dallas Fed. Rates fell in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, Laredo, McAllen–Edinburg–Mission and San Antonio–New Braunfels areas.
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 monthly 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
E-mail: alexander.johnson@dal.frb.org