EL PASO, TX – The city of El Paso remained at the top of the border metropolises in overall economic output, according to the Dallas Fed’s Business Cycle Index, with year-over-year growth of 3.6%.
According to the Texas A&M University Border Economy Report for the first quarter of 2024, the city of Brownsville ranked behind El Paso with 2.7% year-over-year growth, followed by Laredo with a 1.1% increase, while McAllen was the only border metropolis with stagnant growth and unchanged from last year.
According to the report presented by the University, non-farm employment in the border MSA lost 400 jobs. Both El Paso and McAllen saw small job losses that were virtually cancelled out by job growth in Brownsville and Laredo.
It was also noted that the border-wide unemployment rate was 5% in the first quarter of 2024. Of the four border metropolises, only McAllen recorded a decline in unemployment from 5.9% to 5.8%. Brownsville remained unchanged, but both El Paso and Laredo posted slight increases.
The average hourly wage on the border rose 25 cents, reaching $21.46. However, after last quarter’s drop, earnings are back to within five cents of Q3 2023. The biggest gains last quarter occurred in Brownsville and McAllen.
Pedestrian border crossings fell 9.3% quarter-over-quarter, but were up 8.1% year-over-year. This is the first quarterly drop since the third quarter of 2022. Pedestrian border crossings remain more than one million counts away from the pre-pandemic peak of 5.2 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Also, personal vehicle passengers declined compared to last quarter and last year. The largest drop was 1.4% quarter-over-quarter, while the year-over-year decline was a very slight 0.2%.
