Texas is currently in Phase III of reopening and many businesses who were previously prohibited from operating have reopened their doors, if at lower than normal capacities.
In April, that rate jumped nearly eight percent to 12.8 as 232,000 people were added to the unemployment rolls. Later, the April unemployment rate was adjusted to 13.1 percent. The unemployment rate for the month of May dropped slightly to 12.7 percent.
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of the hiring boon were Hospitality and Leisure businesses, which previously lost over 500,000 jobs from March to April, but regained over 175,000 of those last month. That’s an over 20 percent increase from last month to this month.
Much of that can likely be attributed to businesses such as restaurants, bars, and hotels being able to open at some capacity.
Similarly, Education and Health Services added nearly 52,000 jobs and Trade, Transportation, and Utilities added over 20,000.
The highest regions of unemployment for May were Beaumont-Port Arthur at 17.8 percent and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission at 17.7 percent.
Amarillo has the lowest regional unemployment rate at 8.5 percent.
Rate-wise, the Mining and Logging industry took the biggest hit with a 6.8 percent loss in jobs, totaling about 15,000.
Texas is still slightly below the national unemployment rate.
Across the country, 2.5 million jobs were added to the economy.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
