(HOUSTON, Texas, June 21, 2024) Houston-area employers added 16,100 jobs in May, boosted by strong hiring in the Construction, Trade, Transportation and Utilities and Leisure and Hospitality sectors, according to numbers released Friday by Workforce Solutions.
Parker Harvey, the agency’s Manager of Regional Economic Analysis, said hiring in the Construction sector is the largest over-the-month gain in more than fifteen years, “Construction added 2,800 jobs, more than twice what we expect during a typical May. This is substantially above the long-term average.” Harvey noted that hiring was evenly split between Heavy and Civil Engineering (+ 1,200) and Specialty Trade Contractors (+ 1,100).
“The Heavy and Civil Engineering sub-sector appears to be ramping up hiring in anticipation of kicking off some infrastructure improvement projects that will likely get underway this summer,” he added. Prior to May, the subsector added a mere 1,000 new jobs between December and April.
Hiring in the Leisure and Hospitality sector outpaced all other employment sectors, welcoming 6,300 new workers to its ranks in May as employers staffed up ahead of summer. That’s the largest over-the-month gain since 2021 and the third largest on record. Motels, restaurants and bars expanded payrolls the most, with 5,000 jobs added last month.
Meantime, warehousing and logistics firms also expanded their payrolls at a brisk pace in May, adding 3,000 new workers in the Trade, Transportation, and Utilities sector, which was also the largest over-the-month gain on record and marks 38 consecutive months of year-over-year growth.
The not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May ticked slightly higher to 4.0 percent compared to April’s 3.8 percent. Seasonally adjusted unemployment for April was unchanged at 4.2 percent.
Additional labor market information, including the detailed May report can be found online at www.wrksolutions.com/localstats. The Texas Workforce Commission will release June employment data on July 19, 2024.
ABOUT WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS: Workforce Solutions is dedicated to keeping the Texas Gulf Coast region a great place to do business, work and live. Our employer-driven, people-focused approach elevates the economic and human potential of the region to attract and retain the best employers, afford everyone the dignity of a job, and remain indispensable to the global economy. As the public workforce system for 13 counties in the Houston-Galveston region, we work in tandem with the Texas Workforce Commission and the statewide Workforce Solutions network to maintain the state’s largest job-match database – www.WorkInTexas.com.
