Summary: "A lack of employment growth and a slight increase in unemployment from July to August, along with fewer employers raising wages, are signs that Texas’ economy is slowing, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said in a report released Thursday."
Latest Update: Friday, 30 September, 2022
Tags: #Finance
Lackluster employment numbers signal economic slowdown for Texas, Dallas Fed says, the Texas Tribune, 29 September 2022, Excerpts
A lack of employment growth and a slight increase in unemployment from July to August, along with fewer employers raising wages, are signs that Texas’ economy is slowing, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said in a report released Thursday.
[Pia Orrenius, the Dallas Fed vice president] suggested the slowed economic activity may help slow inflation in Texas.
“While official statistics have yet to show a meaningful easing of price pressures in our region, our surveys suggest a rapidly increasing share of Texas companies are refraining from increasing prices,” she said in the video.
About 75% of Texas firms either kept prices the same or lowered them from August to September, according to the video.
Meanwhile, a smaller percentage of employers gave their employees raises in August compared to July, the report said. Only 38% of manufacturing firms and 29% of service companies boosted wages in August, the lowest monthly figures since spring 2021.
Despite the recent slowdown, the report said Texas job growth is expected to exceed 4% this year, which would exceed the state’s historical average growth rate of 2%.
While the August numbers may signal a coming recession, Orrenius said in an interview Thursday that it’s “far too early to say.”
“We’re just seeing this begin, so we’re still not sure if it’s going to stick,” she said. “I think the September jobs numbers will tell us a lot.”
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As inflation skyrockets, local Texas governments ponder tax rate increases as they balance budgets, The Texas Tribune, 27 September 2022. Local governments in Texas have spent the summer preparing their budgets for next year, wrestling with inflation and a law that prohibits them from raising property tax revenues beyond 3.5% without voter approval.
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