(C) Texas Tribune
This story was originally published on Texas Tribune.org[1]
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Texas unemployment rate: How coronavirus impacted the economy
['Anna Novak', 'Mitchell Ferman', 'Mandi Cai']
Date: 2020-04-17 20:00:00+00:00

After surpassing Great Recession levels in April 2020, the unemployment rate went down

The statewide unemployment rate had been slowly declining for nearly a decade until April 2020, when the rate surpassed Great Recession highs as Texas scrambled to shut down its businesses. More than 1.4 million Texans lost their jobs due to the pandemic in March and April 2020, according to the TWC.

But as of May 2021, the state had gained back around 1 million jobs since the previous spring. In April and May 2021 alone, 47,400 jobs were added in Texas. The unemployment rate dropped to 6.5% in May 2021 — higher than pre-pandemic levels, but around half of the record-high 12.9% in April 2020.

Although more people have been hired recently, many are still facing obstacles reentering the workforce. On June 26, hundreds of thousands of Texans will lose the assistance they received through two federal unemployment aid programs after Abbott opted the state out of federal aid.

Unemployment rate in Texas

Every major industry in Texas suffered losses in jobs when the coronavirus began spreading last spring. Employment in leisure and hospitality, which includes jobs in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, dropped by 38% — over 500,000 jobs — from March to April 2020. Almost 150,000 jobs in that sector were added back the next month. The mining and logging sector, which includes the oil and gas industry, saw employment decrease by 11% from March to April 2020 and continue to drop for several more months. Jobs in education and health services also fell by 10% in April 2020.

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[1] URL: https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2020/texas-unemployment/
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