Texas Border Cities Record New Decrease in Unemployment Rate during August

TEXAS – During the month of August 2022, border cities such as El Paso, Brownsville, Laredo and McAllen recorded a slight decrease of approximately 1.45 percentage points in their annualized unemployment rate, according to data from the Texas Labor Commission (TWC).

In August 2022, Texas added a total of 16,400 nonfarm jobs. For the 10th consecutive month, the state set new employment highs as total nonfarm openings reached 13,530,100 jobs.

Texas has added a total of 726,900 jobs since August 2021. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.1%, an increase of 0.1 percentage points since July 2022. This marks the first increase in the unemployment rate since April 2020.

“Private industry jobs are up more than six percent from this time last year, and Texas employers continue to expand their workforces,” said TWC President Bryan Daniel.

Professional and Business Services led private industry job growth in August, with 5,200 jobs added, followed by Education and Health Services, which grew by 3,800 jobs. Financial activities added 2,800 positions. It is also important to note that Public Administration gained 8,100 jobs during the month.

The Amarillo and Austin-Round Rock metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) posted the lowest August unemployment rates among Texas MSAs, with a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 3.0 percent each, followed by Midland at 3.3 percent, and then Abilene, College Station-Bryan, Lubbock and San Angelo at 3.5 percent each.

El Paso, recorded a non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate last August of 4.6, contrasting with the 5.9 achieved in the same month of 2021. Brownsville had a rate of 6.4, down from 7.9 a year earlier.

Laredo registered in August 2022 an unemployment rate of 4.2, in contrast to the 5.9 obtained in the same period of 2021; while McAllen, reached 7.7 at the end of the eighth month of the year, below the 9.1 it registered last year.

According to the figures presented, El Paso closed August 2022 with a total of 16,800 unemployed people, while 346,600 citizens were working. In Brownsville, 11,300 people ended August without work, while 164,200 were employed.

For its part, the city of Laredo reported 4,900 unemployed against 112,700 workers in August 2022; while McAllen counted 28,200 citizens looking for work, contrasting with the 339,500 who were employed at the end of said period.