AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas unemployment rate remained at 5.7 percent for the second straight month, continuing to reflect the state’s lowest jobless figure since November 2008. The Texas Workforce Commission on Friday reported the seasonally adjusted rate for February is down from 6.5 percent for the same month last year. The nationwide jobless rate stood at 6.7 percent in February. TWC officials say Texas employers in February added 37,600 seasonally adjusted jobs. They say the state added more than 314,000 jobs from February 2013 to February of this year.
The Midland area had the state’s lowest jobless rate in February at 3.0 percent. The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area had the highest jobless rate in Texas at 10.3 percent. Unemployment in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington was up slightly from January’s 5.7 percent, moving up to 5.8 percent in February. That’s well down from a year earlier, when the rate was 6.5 percent.
Breaking the metropolitan area down slightly, Fort Worth-Arlington’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.7 percent. That’s well down from February 2013’s 6.4 percent. The Dallas-Plano-Irving unemployment rate was 5.9 percent in February, up from 5.7 percent a month earlier. In February 2013, the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent. Breaking the employment figures down by industry, construction showed the largest year-over-year increase in February, up 0.9 percent, followed closely by mining, which was up 0.7 percent. Mining includes energy industry jobs.