TEXAS – During the month of June 2024, the unemployment rate in Texas border cities showed a year-over-year increase, according to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).
El Paso recorded a non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 4.9 last June, up from 4.5 in the same month of 2023. Brownsville had a rate of 6.2, up from 5.9 a year earlier.
Laredo registered an unemployment rate of 4.8 in June 2024, up from 4.4 the previous year; while McAllen, reached 7.0 at the end of the sixth month, compared to 6.7 in 2023.
According to the figures presented, El Paso closed June with a total of 19,100 unemployed people, contrasting with the 16,900 registered a year ago; while 388,200 citizens were working this year. In Brownsville, 11,500 people ended June without work, compared to 10,600 last year, while 175,100 were employed this year.
The city of Laredo reported 5,900 unemployed at the end of the sixth month of 2024, while 117,800 people were working during the same period; in McAllen, 27,200 citizens were looking for work, while 361,800 people were employed at the end of June 2024.
The Texas civilian labor force reached a new record high in June, marking the sixth consecutive month of growth. After adding 49,100 people over the month, the seasonally adjusted Texas civilian labor force reached a new high of 15,311,500 in June.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate came in at 4.0%, 0.1 percentage points below the national unemployment rate.
The state’s seasonally adjusted total nonfarm employment, which was calculated separately from the civilian labor force statistics and refers to the number of employed jobs in Texas, posted a decline of 1,200 jobs, from 14 million 190,000 in May to 14 million 188,800 in June, TWC reported. However, the number of nonfarm jobs in Texas grew by 267,400 jobs since June 2023. This reflected an annual growth rate of 1.9 percent, which exceeded the national average by 0.2 percentage points.
Construction grew 4.4 percent over the year, outpacing the national growth rate by 1.5 percentage points. Construction added 5,100 jobs in June, registering as the industry with the largest increase over the month. Private education and health services added 3,900 jobs in the month and manufacturing added 2,500.
The Midland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) had the lowest unemployment rate among Texas MSAs with a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 2.9 percent in June, followed by the Amarillo MSA at 3.4 percent, and the College Station-Bryan MSA at 3.7 percent.
