Thanks to a “robust” July 2019 job growth and steady unemployment growth, Texas’ health economic indicators remain strong.
According to data released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the state’s Texas Business-Cycle Index grew at an annualized 5.9%, “increasing for the seventh straight month, following a six-month period of slowing growth.”
Even as the rig count and oil/gas prices are slipping, and even as exports dipped by 0.7% in June 2019, Texas’ employment growth clocked in at an annualized 3.4%, following an upwardly revised growth of 4.0% from the previous month. “Job growth remained higher than the state’s long-run average of 2.1%,” the Dallas Fed observed, adding that the employment forecast is for a 2.6% growth in 2019. The unemployment rate remained at 3.4%.
Meanwhile, single-housing permits dropped 6.1% in June, with Dallas-Fort Worth, El Paso and Houston trending downward. The cities of San Antonio and Austin increased.