Texas Overview

Second to California in terms of population, Texas is known for doing everything big. The Lone Star State has the largest oil reserves in the US, a large beef industry, its own power grid and a huge transportation infrastructure that contributes to its strong export business. Texas job conditions are currently on a robust upswing for the state’s 12.5 million workers.

Texas Job Opportunities

Texas lures job seekers with a relatively affordable lifestyle, appealing tax structure and reasonable real estate prices.

The trade, transportation and utilities sector dominates employment in Texas, followed by government, professional/business services and education/health services. Nearly every sector has demonstrated strong growth with the exception of government and construction. Besides its energy sector, Texas has an expanding presence in biotechnology and life sciences, as well as leading aerospace/defense, IT and advanced manufacturing firms.

Texas Employment Trends

The volume of Texas jobs is positive and expanding. Throughout the recession, the state experienced a relatively low unemployment rate, which peaked at only 8.2 percent in 2010. By June 2012, the Texas unemployment rate had fallen to 7 percent. Both payrolls and online hiring are reporting solid monthly increases.

Jobs in Texas are expected to grow a strong 2.4 percent between Q2 2012 and Q2 2013, much higher than the 1.3 percent increase expected in the national job supply, Moody’s Analytics forecasts.