Southwest Economy Archive

• February 2, 2024
  Hang your hat in Texas: State remains a leader in firm relocations

  Pia Orrenius, Ana Pranger, Madeline Zavodny and Oscar Parra

  Recently released data through 2019 show Texas remains a juggernaut, a leader for business relocations. And while figures covering the subsequent pandemic era and beyond are incomplete, anecdotal evidence suggests Texas remains a go-to spot.
• January 19, 2024
  Brownsville experiencing greatest growth burst ‘in my lifetime’
  Texas National Bank President Joe Quiroga, a lifelong resident of the Lower Rio Grande Valley area and Dallas Fed director, discusses the area’s rapid growth and its future prospects.
• December 15, 2023
  WARN layoff notices signal easing Texas labor market

  Luis Torres and Prithvi Kalkunte

  Even with Texas employment growing rapidly and jobless rates remaining low in 2023, mass layoffs may be heading higher, according to notices of pending workforce reductions filed with state officials.
• December 13, 2023
  Widening gap between rich and poor poses challenge to U.S.
  Economist Jeffrey Fuhrer, a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Boston Fed director of research, discusses the nation’s income and wealth gaps and offers proposals to close them. Fuhrer’s recently published book, “The Myth that Made Us,” explores inequalities in the nation’s economic system.
• December 6, 2023
  Fed credibility enhanced when public finds policymakers relatable
  University of Chicago Booth School associate professor Michael Weber explains how audiences are especially receptive to monetary policy messaging delivered by Fed officials whose ethnic or gender background is similar to theirs and outlines the broader implications of such enhanced credibility.
• November 29, 2023
  New disruption from artificial intelligence exposes high-skilled workers

  Ana Pranger and Yichen Su

  With workers still grappling with the consequences of automation, the lightning-speed pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development poses fresh concerns of a new wave of worker displacement.
• November 17, 2023
  State output remains distinctly Texan, while jobs mix increasingly resembles the U.S.

  Jesse Thompson and Keighton Hines

  Lore and data have historically suggested that Texas is unlike any other place. Over the past 40 years, change has swept the state. Texas’ employment composition has increasingly come to resemble the entirety of the U.S., more so than even California or New York. But Texas economic output is another story.
• October 20, 2023
  Strong U.S. labor market drives record remittances to Mexico

  Jesus Cañas and Ana Pranger

  Remittances from the U.S. to Mexico reached a record $55.9 billion in 2022. Strong employment in the U.S. construction sector—a leading employer of Mexican migrants—best explains the recent growth of remittances to Mexico.
• October 18, 2023
  Hotter summer days heat up Texans but chill the state economy

  Aparna Jayashankar, Prithvi Kalkunte, Anil Kumar and Pia Orrenius

  As climate change intensifies over the next decade, summer heat waves will likely become more common and severe. The effect on Texas GDP growth is likely to be twice as pronounced as in the rest of the U.S. Meanwhile, the effect on job growth will likely be relatively subdued but vary widely across sectors.
• September 29, 2023
  Bankers, regulators absorb lessons of Silicon Valley Bank failure as new tests emerge
  Ben Munyan, director of supervisory policy in the Banking Supervision Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, discusses the challenges the banking industry faces in an era of rapidly rising interest rates and how Texas institutions have fared.