The Texas Workforce Commission reports that nonfarm payroll employment amounted to 3,030,300 jobs in October ’20. That represents a decrease of 151,600 jobs, or 4.8 percent, from October ’19.
Following the Great Recession years (’08 – ’09), Houston entered a period of rapid growth until the energy sector went into a steep decline in January ’15. Despite energy sector job losses, other sectors continued to grow, helping to offset the losses in oil and gas. From October ’17 until October ’19, Houston had net average monthly gains of 7,000 jobs.
Due to reduced economic activity from the COVID-19 pandemic, Houston initially experienced a drop in nonfarm payroll employment in March ’20, with further losses occurring in April. In February ’20, Houston employment was 3.2 million. By April ’20, it was nearly 2.9 million.
As of October ’20, the total number of jobs recovered since April were 176,600, amounting to 50.4 percent of the jobs that were lost.
Stay up-to-date on what’s happening with the Partnership and Greater Houston region by opting-in to receive information on upcoming events, news, data releases and more.
