Economic recovery in north Texas is approaching pre-pandemic levels, with the region recording its lowest unemployment rate since March 2020, according to new data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington’s non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.7% in August, a 0.6 percentage point decrease from 5.3% in July and almost the same as the 4.6% unemployment rate seen in March last year. It did so despite the fact that hospital admissions for COVID-19 skyrocketed in August as the Delta variant spread across the state.
The unemployment rate in Texas fell about as fast as the Dallas area, falling 0.7 percentage points from 6% in July to 5.3% in August.
“The latest unemployment figure shows that the unemployment figure is pretty close to what it was before the pandemic,” said Martin Kohli, economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “The Dallas-Fort Worth region is doing pretty well economically.”
Dallas-Plano-Irving, one of two metropolitan areas in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area, created 13,300 jobs in August according to non-seasonally adjusted data, more than double the 6,600 jobs added in July. Fort Worth-Arlington added 9,700 jobs last month.
The area far outperformed its metro counterparts in Texas. The Houston area created fewer than 5,000 new jobs while Austin only gained 1,400.
The Dallas-Fort Worth economy has steadily returned to pre-pandemic norms over the past year. The region saw a sharp rise in unemployment in April 2020, but the unemployment rate leveled off by August this year.
Of the metropolitan areas, Dallas-Plano-Irving does slightly better with an unemployment rate of 4.6% in August, compared to Fort Worth-Arlington of 4.9%.
Different industries are also recovering at different speeds. The Dallas-Plano-Irving professional and business services sector, which includes roles such as accounting and consulting, added 11,400 jobs in the past month, making up the majority of the jobs created in the area. Conversely, the recreational and hospitality industries in Dallas-Plano-Irving lost 8,200 jobs when the Delta variant skyrocketed, although that number is still higher than last year.
In Fort Worth-Arlington, the commercial, transportation and utilities sectors added 3,600 jobs while the leisure and hospitality industries lost 400. Arlington.
“Much of the Dallas area has recovered, but there are still some parts of the Dallas area that are not quite where they were before the pandemic,” Kohli said.
The leisure and hospitality industry also struggled outside of the Dallas area, losing nearly 6,000 jobs in Austin and nearly 5,000 jobs in Houston.
COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions in North Texas have been declining lately, a pattern that, if continued, has the potential to further boost the economy as it recovers.
It’s unclear if or when the region will return to pre-pandemic growth and unemployment levels, but the Dallas economy is doing well overall.
“Most people think how close we are to where we were before and the Dallas-Fort Worth area is very close,” said Kohli.
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