My Recruiting Blog

Houston healthcare jobs and education jobs experienced the second-largest yearly increase in employment at the end of last year, falling second only to the mining and logging industry.

Texas's unemployment rate increased during December, but only slightly, from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent. Even so, that rate is still lower than the national average of 9.4 percent. The Houston area had an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent during November.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area employed a total of 2,542,600 workers during December, which is up from 2,534,500 workers during November and a .5 percent increase from the previous year.

The majority of industries added workers at the end of 2010. The trade, transportation, and utilities industry by far created the most jobs, adding 6,900 employees during December.

Six other industries saw a monthly increase in employment, including: leisure and hospitality by 900 jobs; mining and logging by 800 jobs; education and health services by 600 jobs; construction by 500 jobs; manufacturing by 400 jobs; and information by 100 jobs.

Employment in the financial activities industry remained even over the month with 136,700 jobs. The professional and business services, other services, and government industries all lost workers during December.

On a yearly basis, the mining and logging industry experienced the biggest employment growth, increasing by 5.1 percent to 92,200 workers. That was followed by the education and health services industry, which grew by 2.8 percent to 311,600 jobs.

The leisure and hospitality industry increased by 2 percent to 234,500 workers, while the manufacturing industry grew by 1.6 percent to 221,500 jobs, and the other services industry increased by 1 percent to 91,500 workers.

Industries that saw an over-the-year decrease in employment during December include:

• Information by 4.4 percent
• Construction by 1 percent
• Financial activities by .7 percent
• Professional and business services by .5 percent
• Trade, transportation, and utilities by .4 percent
• Government by .3 percent

Labels: Houston healthcare jobs