(HOUSTON, Tex. – May 20, 2024) After a tepid March, employers in the Houston-Sugar Land-The Woodlands MSA rolled out the welcome mat for new employees in April, adding 19,100 jobs, according to information released Friday by Workforce Solutions. The primary drivers of April’s job growth included strong hiring in the Leisure and Hospitality (+6,300), Professional & Business Services (+3,900), and Construction (+2,300) super-sectors. Typically in April, employers add 7,300 new jobs – making last month’s gains substationally above the long-term average.
Overall, nine of the eleven industry sectors reported growth, with only the Mining & Logging and Government sectors reporting losses.
March’s tepid growth was revised downward by 400, to a not-seasonally-adjusted 700 jobs – the second smallest gain during that month on record, according to Parker Harvey, Manager for Regional Economic Analysis at the workforce development agency. “It appears that job gains typically recorded during March was deferred to April,” Harvey explained, adding that combined, hiring during March and April was in-line with the historical average for the two month period.
“Why March hiring was deferred to April is likely to remain a mystery,” he said. “Assuming, of course, that it actually occurred.”
Not seasonally adjusted unemployment in April fell one half of one percent to 3.8 percent, only slightly higher than Texas and the U.S. of 3.5 percent. Seasonally adjusted unemployment for March stood at 4.2 percent, up slightly from February.
Additional labor market information, including the detailed April report can be found online at www.wrksolutions.com/localstats. The Texas Workforce Commission will release May employment data on June 21, 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.