Houston added jobs last month, but lost for the year

By L.M. SIXEL Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Jan. 22, 2010, 1:13PM
 

Houston area employers added 2,700 jobs in December, the fourth consecutive month of over-the-month job gains, the Texas Workforce Commission reported today.

In another sign the Houston economy may be stabilizing, fewer Houston area residents filed initial claims for unemployment in December.

Last month, 22,283 local residents filed for benefits, the lowest number for any month in 2009, said Joel Wagher, labor market analyst for Workforce Solutions, which manages employment services and training for the area.

The peak was in March when 28,729 Houston area residents filed for benefits.

"With these numbers it’s a little better," said Wagher. He added though that some employers are still cutting back, including large engineering firms, space industry-related employers and construction companies.

The number of building jobs in particular is shrinking, Wagher said. For the past three months, Houston has set records for jobs lost in construction.

While December’s data hints at better times, the year-end picture isn’t as bright.

Houston area employers cut 92,500 jobs between December 2008 and December 2009, a 3.5 percent decline.

"That tells the story of the year," said Barton Smith, director of the University of Houston’s Institute for Regional Forecasting. He referred to 2009 as a bleak year.

Besides construction, the sectors that lost the most include durable goods manufacturing — the makers of oil field equipment —as well as the energy portions of transportation, warehousing and utilities, said Smith.

"It was like the floor fell though in the spring of 2009," he said, referring to the sharp job losses in March, April, May and June. By August, Houston appeared to have hit bottom and at a minimum, he said, the local job picture has stabilized since then.

However, all this is subject to change. That’s because the commission will revise its data in March, comparing its monthly estimates with the actual payroll tax reports from employers. In some years, there have been wide swings in the data.

A drop in the number of working Houstonians edged the local jobless rate up to 8.3 percent in December, according to the commission, from 8.2 percent in November.

The statewide jobless rate jumped to 8.3 percent in December from 8 percent a month earlier.

The Texas jobless rate is adjusted for seasonal variations while Houston data is not.

nancy@callnancyfurst.com