Saturday, August 22, 2009
Waco’s unemployment rate for July stood at 7.2 percent, the highest it has been since at least 2000, according to figures released Friday by the Texas Workforce Commission.
That’s up from 5.1 percent in July of last year and 7.1 percent in June.
“Consumer spending necessary to create jobs just is not appearing, nationally or in Texas, except in specific areas like automobile purchases,” Baylor University economist Kent Gilbreath said.
Ironically, the unemployment figures came out on the first day of the sales-tax holiday weekend, when retailers hope customers will give their stores, and the economy, a jolt.
The unemployment rate for the Waco Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of McLennan County, remains lower than the state’s 7.9 percent and the nation’s 9.4 percent.
Nearby Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood also had a 7.2 percent unemployment rate in July.
Figures released by the workforce commission Friday are not seasonally adjusted.
Scott Connell, a spokesman for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, said figures released Friday have some good news for Waco. They show that the number of people employed in July of this year was only 200 less than in July of last year, though the unemployment rate this year was significantly higher.
The unemployment rate is growing because Waco’s labor force is growing. It stood at 114,900 in July of this year, when 106,600 people were employed. And it stood at 112,600 last July, when 106,800 people had jobs.
With a growing job market, Connell said, Waco will have people to fill openings as the economy recovers.
Connell points out that L-3 Communications, an aircraft modification company, is hiring because it just built a $10 million hangar. The Veterans Affairs Medical Center, meanwhile, will be hiring 224 for a new program.
Robert Crawley, a labor analyst at the Texas Workforce Commission, said Waco’s job market may be growing because of layoffs. He said when the primary bread winner loses his or her job, other family members begin looking for work.
“I’m not saying that’s what is happening in Waco, but it’s not uncommon,” Crawley said.
Gilbreath said unemployment rates affecting other parts of the country “have come home to roost in Texas.” The good news is that Texas tends to lag behind the national economy going down but leads it going up.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Friday that the national economy “is poised for recovery.” Gilbreath said he’s waiting on statistical evidence that the recovery has begun.
mcopeland@wacotrib.com
757-5736
Comments
By null
Aug 25, 2009 2:41 PM | Link to this
Funny how some forget that both parties are responsible for the housing mess and that both parties are responsible for the fix. This economy was not caused by one person, one administration, etc but by years of mismanagement by both parties all the way back to the clinton years.
By null
Aug 25, 2009 2:39 PM | Link to this
Funny how some forget that both parties are responsible for the housing mess and that both parties are responsible for the fix. This economy was not caused by one person, one administration, etc but by years of mismanagement by both parties all the way back to the clinton years.
By Joe
Aug 22, 2009 2:58 PM | Link to this
I'm a bit confused, Michael -- you're mad because people are working instead of taking welfare or Social Security?
By Michael
Aug 22, 2009 12:36 PM | Link to this
Around College Station/Bryan area its very difficult to find jobs!Ive been out of work for months and unless you are an Aggie or Mexican you're kinda sol!!!!!!!!!! Now I know that sounds racist but its the contractors who will hire people who will take less an hour.People receiving social security living off the Government that dont really need it.This country is truly rotting from the inside out.
By qzy
Aug 22, 2009 11:20 AM | Link to this
It really doesn't matter what Obama does or doesn't do. If the man personally found a cure for cancer, the anti-Obama movement would complain that he took too long to do it. It took a long-long time for this nation to get in this mess. No one can realistically expect it to reverse itself in less than a year.
By null
Aug 22, 2009 11:15 AM | Link to this
Of course waco umemployment crept up. 9 Waco police officers were fired....lol.
By harleyj
Aug 22, 2009 11:02 AM | Link to this
It really galls me that people expect Obama to cure a disease in 7 months that it took 8 years of abject mis-management by the Bush-Cheney-Rove White House to create! It says more about the goofs who make such idiotic assumptions than it does those they criticize!
By harleyj
Aug 22, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this
Yeah, Robbie, Obama is telling the truth about the overall economy and all the leading indicators tell the same story he is telling. Unemployment, as always, is a lagging--as opposed to a leading--indicator. Obviously you know nothing about economics! I know you don't remember when Reagan--a very white man, as I am--was president but at this same period--7 months into his presidency--unemployment was 10.5%. He also promised to balance the budget in 3 years but, in fact, he set every record for annual budget deficits & national debt growth, in every year of his presidency. When he took office, the US was the leading lender nation in the world. When he left office 8 yrs later, the Us was the leading debtor nation! During his presidency, the middle class shrunk, the poor class expanded and the wealth of the nation was redistributed from the vast middle class to the very, very few wealthy. The buying power of the dollar the working man earned shrunk to virtually all time lows in real value. Yeah, Reagan promised a "shining city on a hill" and we almost got a dingy slum in the swamps! had he not had a Democratic congress that tried to work with him--and gave him virtually everything he asked for--this nation would have looked a lot like Mexico along the border! So consider yourself fortunate that we have an intelligent man in the White House today and not some old worn out anti-intellectual dunce like RWR. Oh, and lets face the fact that Reagan had to pass a record tax and fee increase in his second term to make up for the failure of his first term debt expanding "borrow and spend" policies! That tax increase included, for the first time, a tax on social security income!
By Mark Jackson
Aug 22, 2009 10:46 AM | Link to this
"Robbie", the damage you are seeing now was done by bush/cheney's eight years. It will take years to correct the sins of those two. I lost thousands of dollars because of the ill fated policies of those clowns.
And you did too, even if you do not know it.
By Cecil 1
Aug 22, 2009 8:39 AM | Link to this
Surprise, surprise...
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