Texas Best Lobbying News: Texas Unemployment Falls to 6.8 percent
The following is a digest of an article that originally appeared in the Texas Tribune. The Texas Lobby Group is posting this summary as a public service for other Texas Lobbyists, Texas political consultants and government officials, and other interested parties.
On a National level in America, the economy isn’t looking so good. The economy continues to falter, and people everywhere are struggling to get by. In most places, unemployment has reached all time high numbers in recent years. For citizens and businesses, Texas is currently a great place to be. In September unemployment in Texas fell to 6.8%. As of September, the National average of unemployment was stated as being at 7.8%. The state also added over 21,000 jobs in the same month. The Texas Workforce Commision has had nothing but good news to report as of lately.
“‘We saw encouraging signs in our state’s labor market in September and a decrease in the unemployment rate last month,’ said Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Andres Alcantar. ‘Texas continues to add jobs, and we now have a record number of people employed in our state.’ Texas has added 267,000 jobs since last year, including 54,700 in the trade, transportation, and utilities sector. Oil and gas-producing West Texas has fared especially well, with Midland and Odessa posting the lowest unemployment rates in the state at 3.3 and 3.9 percent, respectively.”
Interestingly, the state government itself has not been doing so well in the Jobs sector. The Texas local government has recently gotten rid of over 8,600 government jobs. This is certainly connected to the recession at hand, and showcases Texas’s willingness to “trim the fat”. Texas is well known for it’s conservative spending and fondness for cutting back on excess programs, especially in times of economic hardship. Rick Perry has said that it is a priority for him to preserve a solid rainy day fund, and to keep taxes and regulations low for businesses. He credits these policies towards Texas’s economic prosperity, and low standard of living.
Texas remains an economic model for the entire country. It just goes to show what thoughtful spending can do for a state. It’s important to not spend money that isn’t there, and to remain conscientious about where state revenue is going. Spending must be adapted to the issues and times at hand.