The unemployment rate in San Antonio fell in September, undoing a slight increase in August and bringing the number of jobs in the area a little closer to pre-pandemic levels, despite employers struggling to hire workers.
More people were employed in the metropolitan area than in any month since the pandemic began, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Friday.
The San Antonio-New Braunfels area’s unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in September, the Texas Workforce Commission said in a separate report. That was a 4.8 percent decrease in August and well below 7.4 percent a year ago.
A late summer spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that peaked in August caused the recovery to hiccup by fall. But the job recovery picked up pace in September as the total fell and San Antonio created more than 15,000 jobs, the commission said.
According to data from the Dallas Fed, the region has regained 39,000 jobs since September 2020. Total employment in the metropolitan area was only 2 percent lower in September than it was in February 2020, just before the pandemic stalled economic activity and spiked unemployment.
Nationwide, the sector with the largest job growth last month was Leisure and Hospitality, adding 31,900 jobs.
The industry has been devastated by the pandemic and the associated decline in travel over the past year and a half. But San Antonio added 2,700 recreational and hospitality jobs last month, which is the biggest month-long job increase in the industry in a year, according to the Dallas Fed.
“As COVID-19 hospital stays in Texas have declined since early September, recreational, hospitality and retail jobs have rallied,” said Keith Phillips, vice president and chief economist, Dallas Fed.
About 12 percent of all workers in San Antonio are employed in the leisure and hospitality industries.
Workforce Commission data showed that other sectors with big gains last month were commerce, transportation and utilities, which created 16,700 jobs; and professional and business services, which added 16,400.
The Dallas Fed economists estimate the state will create 626,000 jobs by 2021. By December, they forecast that employment will reach 13 million workers nationwide. If so, Texas would hit record-breaking employment levels and end the year with a larger workforce than before the pandemic.
Phillips said global supply chain issues and bottlenecks felt in almost every corner of the U.S. economy over the past few months have hampered growth, but less than expected.
“While consumer demand remains strong, the strength of employment growth is somewhat surprising given the tightness of the labor market and supply chain challenges companies are facing,” said Phillips.
Nationwide, the unemployment rate fell from 5.3 percent in the previous month to 4.9 percent in September, according to the Workforce Commission. The national rate was 4.6 percent last month.
The highest rate among subways across the state was 8 percent, and it was hit in both the McAllen-Edinburgh Mission and Beaumont-Port Arthur areas, the commission said. Amarillo had the lowest rate in the state at 3.4 percent. Austin-Round Rock’s rate was 3.5 percent.
diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net
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