Texas job growth 31.5 % since 1995, US rate 12 % for same period

Larry Bell:

It’s sure a good thing that Texas has lots of space, because a booming economy is bringing in lots of people. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of Texas jobs has grown 31.5 percent since 1995, compared with 12 percent nationwide. Following the financial crisis of 2009-2011 the job growth was only 2.4 percent…but this was still six times higher than the anemic 0.4 percent growth rate of the overall American economy.

What’s creating all those jobs? Yes, petrochemical is a big part of it, just as we’re seeing in North Dakota and other states that are providing fuel essential for industry and virtually all aspects of domestic life. Then add to that an economic climate which has consistently ranked Texas among top states in various surveys for business friendliness, no personal income taxes, strong wages, value-priced real estate, and a great living environment, and you have a darned good formula for success.

Despite an economic slowdown between 2002 and 2011, Texas trounced the national average in adding well-paying jobs. For industries paying more than 150 percent of the average American wage Texas added 216,000 jobs, compared with 495,000 for the entire rest of the country. In other words, the Lone Star State with 8 percent of the U.S. population added nearly one-third of the country’s highest-paying positions. In addition, Texas added 49,000 positions paying between 125 percent and 150 percent of the U.S. average, compared with the rest of the country which lost 174,000 jobs in that category.

Many of those additional 2002-2011 jobs did involve natural resource extraction, accounting for 80 percent of all national job gains in that field. The other big state gain added professional, scientific and technical positions. Both categories boosted wages far higher than the national average. And as the economy grew, it also added hundreds of thousands of positions in lower-paid fields such as food services and health care.
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Chief Executive magazine has ranked Texas number one for eight straight years in its annual “Best & Worst States for Business” listing. In case you’re wondering, last place over those eight years went to California where disastrous energy policies, a stifling regulatory environment, reliance upon central planning, tax-supported subsidies and social entitlement programs are turning dreams of good lives into nightmares. As a result, companies, large and small, are leaving in hordes, taking much of the state’s tax base along with employment opportunities with them. According to census data, California lost one-half million people to other states between 2007 and 2010, while Texas gained 394,000.
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There is much more.

The data keeps rolling in supporting the Texas model and exposing the down side of the blue state models.   It is a story that adds more evidence to support taking the Texas model nationwide.