Recent Reports Show that North Texas is a Great Place to Find a Job

Despite recent upsets in the oil industry, experts seem to agree that Texas – and particularly the North Texas region – remains a great place to find a job. In fact, the region was recently recognized as one of the best cities for jobs while the Texas Workforce Commission found that the state’s employment opportunities are growing.

According to Forbes’ recent listing of “The Best Big Cities for Jobs 2015,” the Dallas-Plano-Irving metro area is the third best metro area in the country for jobs. The report went on to say that the Dallas metro area’s job count grew 4.2 percent over the past year. Furthermore, overall employment is up by 15.7 percent since 2009, with professional business services seeing 18.6 percent in growth.

To determine its rankings, Forbes considered short-term, medium-term and long-term job creation dating back to 2003. The publication also considered whether growth appeared to be slowing or accelerating. Altogether, the publication analyzed data in 70 of the country’s largest metro area. The number one metro region in terms of jobs was the San Francisco-Redwood-South San Francisco metro area, while the San-Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area came in second. Austin took the fourth place spot while Houston was ranked number six.

Employment Offers Boon to Dallas Home Owners

The Texas Workforce Commission is also showing that employment opportunities within the state are increasing despite the condition of the oil industry. In May alone, the state added 33,200 nonfarm jobs, representing a significant increase over the 1,200 jobs the state added in April. The growth is even more welcome after the state lost 25,200 jobs in March.

Over the past year, Texas has added jobs in certain sectors while gaining jobs in others. Areas such as education, health and leisure and hospitality services all saw increases in job opportunities. The biggest losses were in the mining and logging sectors, which include jobs in the oil and gas industries. The manufacturing sector also lost 6,700 jobs in May alone, which can mostly be attributed to the problems the energy sector faced. Nonetheless, the state still managed to add 286,400 jobs over the last 12 months.

Due to low crude oil and natural gas prices, the energy industry cut 6,000 positions in May. Furthermore, the sector lost 9,300 jobs over the past year, representing a 3.1 percent loss. The rig count has also fallen by 525 over the past year in Texas and crude oil hit $60 per barrel. Nonetheless, things are looking up in the sector, with Pioneer Natural Resources, Matador Resources and other drillers making plans to increase drilling within the next few months. Furthermore, while statewide unemployment did increase from 4.2 percent in April to 4.3 percent in May, it still remains well below the national unemployment rate of 5.5 percent.

To learn more about the opportunities that Texas has to offer, including available homes in Dallas-Fort Worth, contact our team of experienced real estate agents today. We will be happy to help you with all of your real estate needs.

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