My commentary in last week’s Investor’s Business Daily noted that excluding the 1.1 million net nonfarm jobs added in Texas since the last recession that started in December 2007 the rest of the nation would be 350,000 net jobs below the pre-recession level. This data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) establishment survey shows how Texas has been carrying the nation’s load in job growth.
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Expanding on this remarkable employment growth in Texas, Mark Perry at the American Enterprise Institute posted the following figure of a similar comparison using total civilian employment data from the BLS household survey. As he correctly notes, “Total civilian employment is a more comprehensive measure of all U.S. workers that includes agricultural workers, the self-employed, and workers in private households.”
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As you can see, these data also show that without the employment gains in the Lone Star State from the low tax and stable regulatory environment of the Texas model the rest of the nation would employ substantially fewer people.
No matter how you slice it, Texas has truly been the real model of prosperity.