Brownsville-Harlingen jobless rate remains steady

HARLINGEN – For another consecutive month, unemployment rates in the Brownsville-Harlingen metro area have dropped, approaching pre-recession levels and decreasing significantly since a year ago.

The metro area, which includes both larger communities as well as others in the immediate area, shows a decrease to 6.6 percent unemployment for May, down from 6.7 percent in April. More importantly, that is down from 8.1 percent exactly a year ago.

The unemployment numbers are about half of what they were in May 2011 when the metro area statistics showed an 11.3 percent unemployment rate.

The City of Harlingen’s numbers were 10.5 at that same time. Prerecession numbers in May 2007, show about a 5.5 percent unemployment rate.

In all, there is a total labor force in the Brownsville-Harlingen Metro area of 165,400 people, 154,500 of whom are employed, according to statistics that are not adjusted to seasonal employment.

Also, visit the Texas Workforce Commission for more information.