Texas’ recovery slows in April, adding just 13,000 jobs statewide

Texas added 13,000 jobs in April, down sharply from the 99,000 jobs gained in March, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Friday.

Much of April’s gains came from government hiring, and the private sector in Texas added just 1,700 positions in the month.

The statewide unemployment rate improved to 6.7%, down 0.2 percentage points from March. Joblessness in Texas remained higher than the U.S. rate of 6.1% in April.

Texas has generally been adding jobs since May 2020 after COVID-19 lockdowns slammed businesses throughout the state and nation. But Texas’ job gains have been uneven, rising sharply some months and then slowing — or even declining in February, after a brutal winter storm cut off power to much of the state.

In April, the leisure and hospitality sector added 14,100 jobs from March to April, the largest gain for any single segment. That’s probably due to more restaurants and bars staffing up as their businesses reopened or welcomed back more customers.

Millions of Americans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and have begun to get out and about. Pandemic restrictions, including mask mandates, have been lifted or relaxed.

But employment in leisure and hospitality has not come close to recovering fully from the pandemic. The sector was still 130,000 short of the total jobs in March 2020, when COVID-19 hit North Texas.

Government added 11,300 jobs in April, and professional and business services gained 8,300, the workforce commission reported.

Job losses were led by construction, which shed 13,600 jobs last month. That may seem counterintuitive, given the booming residential real estate market. But nonresidential real estate has been contracting nationwide, in part because so many people are working from home successfully. That’s raising questions about the impact on office space, especially in dense employment centers like downtown Dallas.

Mining and logging, which reflects the state’s oil and gas business, lost 2,800 jobs last month and manufacturing lost 1,100.

Trade, transportation and utilities, which has been a bright spot in the labor market, lost 3,000 jobs in April, the commission said.

Amarillo reported the lowest unemployment rate among Texas metros, at 4%, not seasonally adjusted. The Austin area followed at 4.5%.

In Dallas-Plano-Irving, April’s unemployment rate was 5.6%, not seasonally adjusted. Fort Worth-Arlington’s rate was 5.8%, the commission said. The size of the civilian labor force was slightly smaller in April for the Dallas and Fort Worth areas — and for the entire state.

Employers have complained that expanded unemployment benefits have discouraged people from taking jobs, especially at restaurants and bars. On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott said Texas would stop paying an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits funded by the federal government.

That program runs until September, but Abbott said Texas would cease the extra payments on June 26. That follows similar moves in other Republican-led states.

“The Texas economy is booming and employers are hiring in communities throughout the state,” Abbott said Monday.

In April, over 881,000 Texans were still unemployed, according to the workforce commission. That’s a strong improvement from the previous month, but it’s still 300,000 higher than in February 2020, before the pandemic hit.