Unemployment Rate Holds Steady For Texas, Rises in Lubbock For June 2013

The Texas unemployment rate for June 2013 held steady from the previous month, but Lubbock’s rate rose significantly.

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the Texas economy added 5,800 seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs in June, but the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady in June at 6.5 percent.

The unemployment rate for the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area for June 2013, which includes Lubbock and Crosby Counties, rose sharply to 6.1 percent, up from the previous month’s 5.3 percent, but still down from June 2012’s 6.4 percent.

The Lubbock MSA posted a decrease of 1,200 jobs in June. The highest decrease was in the leisure and hospitality sector with a loss of 700 jobs, followed a 100-job dip in educational and health services. The government sector also showed losses with a decrease of 300 jobs on the state level, but an extra 100 jobs were added in the local government sector. Job losses were also seen in the construction sector and educational and health services sector.

The highest unemployment rate across the South Plains for June was in Hale County at 13.1 percent, signaling major economic problems for Plainview with the closing of the Cargill Meat Processing Plant in January of this year. The lowest rate was in Yoakum County with 3.6 percent.

The overall unemployment rate for the South Plains is at 6.1 percent.

Unemployment rates rose in the larger metropolitan areas of the Lone Star State as well, with unemployment climbing to 5.8 percent in the Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos area from May’s 5.4 percent; an increase to 6.7 percent for the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area from May’s 6.3 percent; a rate increase to 6.7 percent for Houston and San Antonio.

The lowest unemployment rate in Texas was in the Midland Metropolitan Statistical Area at 3.7 percent, followed by Odessa at 4.5 percent and Amarillo at 5.3 percent.

The highest unemployment rate in the state for June is in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area at 11.6 percent.

The national unemployment rate is at 7.6 percent for June.

More information on the June 2013 unemployment rates across Texas is available here.