The Partnership sends updates for the most important economic indicators each month. If you would like to opt-in to receive these updates, please click here.

Metro Houston added 44,700 jobs in the 12 months ending August ’26, according to data released today by the Texas Workforce Commission. Roughly two-thirds of sectors added jobs, with construction and administrative support together accounting for more than half of the region’s gains. Public education, restaurants and bars, and health care each added more than 5,000 positions. Of the eight sectors that lost jobs, seven shed fewer than 2,000. Finance and insurance was the outlier, as higher borrowing costs have weighed on lending activity nationwide.

Metro Houston’s annual job growth rate stands at 1.3 percent, more than four times the national rate of 0.3 percent, with the region posting unusually strong gains through much of the summer.

But momentum cooled in August, with the region adding just 900 jobs month-over-month. That compares with an average August gain of roughly 5,000 in the decade before the pandemic and marks the softest August since ’16. Part of the slowdown came from an unusual drop in other services, which shed nearly 4,000 positions during the month. The sector includes repair and maintenance, personal services, and religious and civic organizations. The decline may reflect softer demand for personal services, labor-supply pressures or both.

Total non-farm payroll employment in the region now stands at 3,495,300.

Prepared by Greater Houston Partnership Research Division.

Colin Baker
Director of Economic Research
Greater Houston Partnership
bakerc@houston.org