Listen
Eleven thousand workers joined Texas payrolls in March, down from 20,000 the month before.
Declines in construction and trade & transportation employment offset jobs added in most other sectors. Texas, which led the nation in job creation in February, dropped to fourth place behind New York, California, and Arizona.
Texas registered a 7% unemployment rate for March. That’s down a tenth of a percentage point from February but a full point from a year earlier. The national jobless rate was little changed from February at 8.2% but was 0.7 of a point lower than in March 2011.
States with statistically significant unemployment rate changes from March 2011
to March 2012, seasonally adjusted
| Rate | Over-the-year | ||
| State | March 2011 | March 2012 (p) | change |
| Alabama | 9.3 | 7.3 | -2.0 |
| California | 11.9 | 11.0 | -.9 |
| Connecticut | 9.1 | 7.7 | -1.4 |
| Florida | 10.7 | 9.0 | -1.7 |
| Georgia | 9.8 | 9.0 | -.8 |
| Michigan | 10.5 | 8.5 | -2.0 |
| Minnesota | 6.6 | 5.8 | -.8 |
| Missouri | 8.7 | 7.4 | -1.3 |
| Nevada | 13.6 | 12.0 | -1.6 |
| Ohio | 8.8 | 7.5 | -1.3 |
| South Carolina | 10.4 | 8.9 | -1.5 |
| South Dakota | 4.9 | 4.3 | -.6 |
| Tennessee | 9.4 | 7.9 | -1.5 |
| Texas | 8.0 | 7.0 | -1.0 |
| Utah | 7.1 | 5.8 | -1.3 |
| Vermont | 5.8 | 4.8 | -1.0 |
| Washington | 9.4 | 8.3 | -1.1 |
| Wisconsin | 7.6 | 6.8 | -.8 |
p = preliminary. Graph from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Subscribe to Today in Houston
Fill out the form below to subscribe our new daily editorial newsletter from the HPM Newsroom.
