Hurricane Beryl, official end of 2023-2024 academic year blamed for steep summer drop
(HOUSTON, Texas, August 16, 2024) 30,000 Houston-area workers reportedly lost their jobs in July, according to data released this morning by Workforce Solutions. “While the topline loss of 30,000 jobs, not seasonally adjusted, is larger than a typical July, Hurricane Beryl can explain some of what we saw,” said Parker Harvey, Principal Economist at the regional workforce development agency.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys employers each month during the week of the 12th, which this year fell on the Friday after Beryl came ashore. “So there were two big disrupters during that week – it was the first time public and private schools, colleges, and universities reported their typical summer layoffs and we had region-wide power outages caused by the storm,” Harvey explained.
Harvey said it’s fairly common to see a big drop in employment during July, pointing to 2023, when job losses exceeded 28,000. Last month, three out of every four jobs (approximately 22,000) lost during July were related to the end of the school year. “Typically, the other industry sectors can offset some of those losses, but likely because of temporary job losses in the wake of Beryl, it was a larger drop than normal. Assuming overall job market fundamentals are still in place, I would expect to see some degree of rebound next month,” he said.
Despite the losses, not seasonally adjusted unemployment remained unchanged from the previous month at 4.8 percent. Seasonally adjusted unemployment for June rose slightly to 4.3 percent.
Additional labor market information, including the detailed July report, can be found online at www.wrksolutions.com/localstats. The Texas Workforce Commission will release August employment data on September 20, 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.
