Jobs in Houston to Grow Next Year

Tens of thousands of jobs in Houston will be created next year.

A recent report from the University of Houston Institute for Regional Forecasting predicts that employers in the Houston area will add more than 30,000 jobs during 2011. The majority of those jobs will be in oil and gas exploration and production, retail, and government.

An addition of 30,000 jobs would result in a 1.2 percent increase in employment, according to the Houston Chronicle. That would be better than the 3,300 jobs added for a .1 percent increase in employment during September of 2009 and September 2010.

Most recently during September, the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area's unemployment rate decreased from 8.7 percent to 8.2 percent, which was well below the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.6 percent.

The Houston area had a total non-farm employment of 2,514,600 workers during September, which is up from 2,509,800 workers during August and a .1 percent increase from last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The three industries that will most likely add jobs during 2011 include:

• Energy - A demand for fuel from China and other emerging nations will create more jobs.
• Retail - An increase in consumer confidence and better job growth in the overall economy will result in more jobs.
• Government - Although this industry has suffered from some seasonal and economy-related job cuts, government has always been a good producer of jobs, and will continue to be during 2011.

If you think the growth expected in Houston during 2011 sounds good, economic professionals are expecting the city to see even more growth during 2013 and 2014, assuming that the global economy continues to improve as well.