(HOUSTON, Texas, March 28, 2025) The Houston-area job market rebounded slightly in February, with employers adding 15,200 workers to their payroll, according to figures released Friday by Workforce Solutions. Only four of the eleven sectors tracked added jobs during the month.
The Leisure & Hospitality sector rebounded from it’s post-holiday slump to add 4,300 jobs, primarily at restaurants and bars, which saw their payrolls grow by 3,300. Construction workers also went back to work with the sector adding 4,000 new jobs, a number just slightly above the long-term average. Specialty Trade Contractors were the big winner in that sector, taking three out of four jobs added in February.
The Professional and Business Services sector shed the most jobs during February (-1,400) with the majority of cuts in the Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services subsector. “This was second largest decline we’ve ever seen during February in this sector,” said Parker Harvey, regional economist at the workforce development agency. Harvey said that the figure stands in sharp contrast to long-term average, which typically sees jobs added during the month. Hiring in the sector was also revised downward from January.
Houston-area unemployment rose slightly in February. The not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate climbed 0.1 percent to 4.5 percent with 174,561 individuals counted as unemployed last month. Seasonally adjusted unemployment for the Houston area was not available due to changes in methodology at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Office of Management and Budget. Texas’ seasonally adjusted unemployment for January stands at 4.1 percent.
Additional labor market information, including the detailed January report with the Benchmark Revision special report, can be found online at www.wrksolutions.com/localstats. The Texas Workforce Commission will release March employment data on April 18, 2025.
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.