The Texas jobless rate dipped slightly in March as the state set new employment highs for non-farm jobs.
But the biggest movers were here in the Rio Grande Valley, with both Brownsville-Harlingen and the McAllen area showing far bigger drops.
The Brownsville-Harlingen Metropolitan Statistical Area had an unemployment rate for March of 6.1 percent, down from 7.3 percent the previous month and well below the 8.9 percent posted a year ago.
For the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA, the jobless rate for March was 7.0 percent, down from 8.4 percent the previous month. A year ago, the rate was 10.1 percent.
Overall the Texas rate was 4.4 percent for March, down 0.03 percent.
“We’ve added 152,200 positions so far in 2022, which is more jobs over the first three months than any previous year dating back to 1990,” said TWC Chairman Bryan Daniel.
In March, the Financial Activities sector gained 7,800 jobs over the month, and Manufacturing added 5,600 positions. Also of note, Education and Health Services employment grew by 5,500 jobs.
“Texas continues to add jobs month after month, meaning more career opportunities for our Texas workforce,” said TWC Commissioner Representing Labor Julian Alvarez.
The gains posted here in the Valley may be an indicator that the chronic jobless problem throughout the pandemic with its related slowdowns and shutdowns may be ending. Brownsville-Harlingen and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, along with Beaumont-Port Arthur, have had the state’s highest jobless rates for around two years.
The three MSAs remain the highest in the state for the past month as well, but Beaumont-Port Arthur also saw a big drop, from 8.0 percent to 6.6 percent.
The Amarillo and Austin-Round Rock MSAs recorded March’s lowest unemployment rates among Texas MSAs a rate of 2.7 percent, followed by College Station-Bryan at 2.9 percent and Lubbock at 3.0 percent.
