N. Texas firms on a hiring jag - Region has the third-highest job growth in the nation

Posted by Greg Bustin (April 23, 2006)

By ANGELA SHAH Staff Writer
Publshed: April 22, 2006
Reprinted with permission from the Dallas Morning News

North Texas employers added more than 92,000 jobs in the last year - the most since the tech boom six years ago, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday.

In fact, the region, which has a jobless rate of 4.8 percent, has the third-highest job growth in the nation, slightly behind the New York and Phoenix areas.

“I just got off the phone with a CEO whose hair is on fire,” said Greg Bustin, a Dallas business consultant. “There is a belief this is real and this will last.”

Compared with the previous year, when employers added 52,800 new positions, job creation jumped in the fiscal year ended last month to 92,800 jobs. And unlike the dot-com frenzy of the late 1990s, hiring today is coming from nearly all sectors of the economy.

“That was a little more boisterous, I guess you could say,” said economist Ray Perryman. “This is the type of growth that’s more sustainable.”

Statewide, companies also hired at a robust pace, adding 23,200 jobs last month.

The yearly tally for Texas adds up to 279,400 new hires, bringing the state’s total employment to an all-time high of 9.92 million jobs, according to the workforce commission.

The unemployment rate for Texas stayed steady at 5 percent.

Payroll additions came from all metro areas in the state - except Lubbock - and in all industries save for manufacturing, leisure and hospitality, and other services. Trade, transportation and utilities posted the most gains, adding 5,200 jobs in March.

Professional and business services and construction employment was boosted by 4,700 and 3,900 positions, respectively.

The spectacular job gains of the last year follow the boom-or-bust nature of the Texas economy, said Bernard Weinstein, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of North Texas.

“In the 31 years I’ve lived in Texas, it’s been up and down,” he said. “I saw that in the late ’70s, in the ’90s. We’re in another one of those phases.”

Indeed, the robust growth in North Texas marks a stark turnaround from a few years ago when the region, slammed by the telecom bust and woes in the airline industry, was consistently shedding jobs.

From 2002 to 2003, North Texas lost more than 130,000 positions.

“The regional economy has a lot of momentum now,” Mr. Weinstein said. “Barring some national catastrophe, it will continue to do well.”

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