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Metro Houston added 16,400 jobs in October, according to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). That’s slightly above the normal range (12,000 to 14,000) for the month. Year-to-date, the region has created 53,700 jobs.

The region typically adds 15,000 to 30,000 jobs November-December combined, which would have Houston finish the year with somewhere between 63,000 and 83,000 jobs.  Last December, the Partnership forecast the region would create approximately 80,000 jobs if the U.S. avoided a recession. The region is on track to hit the Partnership’s forecast.

Six sectors led job growth in October—health care and social assistance, local public education, professional, scientific, and technical services, retail trade, state public education, and transportation and warehousing.  As a group, they added over 19,000 jobs.

Gains in those sectors were offset by losses in administrative and support services, construction, non-durable goods manufacturing, restaurants and bars, services to buildings and dwellings, and the obscure “management of enterprises” sector.

Total nonfarm payroll employment now tops 3,389,500. Since the economy reopened in May ’20, the region has added 557,000 jobs, recovering 155.0 percent of the 359,300 jobs lost early in the pandemic. Houston’s employment will likely top 3.4 million by year’s end, only to lose 40,000 to 50,000 jobs in January following seasonal patterns. Employment should surpass 3.4 million again and stay there by the fall of ’24.

Over the 12 months ending October ’23, Houston created 76,600 jobs. That ranks sixth among the nation’s major metros, behind New York, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Miami.

Over the past 12 months, employment in Houston grew 2.3 percent. Houston is tied for sixth with metros Baltimore and Seattle.

Prepared by Greater Houston Partnership Research

Patrick Jankowski, CERP
Chief Economist
Senior Vice President, Research
pjankowski@houston.org

Leta Wauson
Research Director
lwauson@houston.org