Texas unemployment rate drops to lowest level since feds began tracking it in 1976

June 21, 2019

Texas’ unemployment rate continues to drop to record lows, with the state’s rate for May hitting a seasonally adjusted 3.5%, the Texas Workforce Commission announced Friday. That’s the lowest level since the federal government began collecting the data series used to calculate the rate in 1976. 

The state’s 3.5% unemployment rate breaks the record low Texas set last month at 3.7%. 

Over the month, the state added 19,600 non-farm jobs, according to seasonally adjusted data. Jobs categorized as professional and business services topped all other categories, adding 8,100 positions. Education and health services saw the second-highest rise, adding 4,500 jobs in May. 

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Among more than two dozen metropolitan statistical areas in Texas, the Midland metro area recorded May’s lowest non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate at 1.7%, according to the Workforce Commission, while the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area had the highest rate at 5%. 

“Texas unemployment rate drops to lowest level since feds began tracking it in 1976” was first published at by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.