Midland employment stands tall, again

MIDLAND – Unemployment in the Midland Metropolitan Statistical Area was 3.4 percent in January, up from 2.9 percent in December but below the 3.9 percent reported last January, according to Texas Workforce Commission.

The increase was attributed to college students home for the holiday break took seasonal jobs.

Midland continued to report the state’s lowest rate, followed by Odessa at 4.1 percent, up from 3.7 percent in December.

Midland’s lowest rate remains 2.4 percent, reported in 2008.

"The news is spectacular," said Karr Ingham, the Amarillo economist who analyzes the oil and gas industry.

Ingham said not only did Midland and Odessa have the lowest unemployment in the state but the highest rates of job growth at 9 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively. The next closest MSA was Houston at 4.5 percent job growth.

In the area’s dominant industrial sector — mining, natural resources and construction — growth was similarly revised upward.

The commission originally estimated Midland employment in that sector, which includes oil and gas, at 19,800 jobs at the end of 2012. That number has been revised to 23,100 jobs, a gain of 3,300 jobs, sending the rate of job creation in that sector from the original 3.7 percent to 16.1 percent.