The Labor Market Information on this site is focused on the thirteen counties within the Gulf Coast Workforce Board region. These counties are: Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller and Wharton.

The source of most of the data is the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment numbers produced by the Texas Workforce Commission. The different data found at this site comes in a variety of time series: monthly, quarterly, yearly, and

biennially. There is also a variety of geographic coverage for the data: city, county, metropolitan, and region. Some data is produced only at the regional level, while some of the timeliest data is produced only at the metropolitan statistical area level.

There is industry employment and wage data that businesses can review to see how their industries are performing in the economy – is your business shrinking while others are growing?

There is occupational wage data that businesses can review to see if their wages are too low, which could cause higher than average turnover for the occupation. To go to the LMI page click here: LABOR MARKET INFORMATION

AUGUST 2010 UPDATE:
NEXT UPDATE: WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 20

July 2010 employment data was released on August 20, 2010, for the Gulf Coast region.

The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown MSA’s over-the-year job growth was -0.4 percent in July, declining by 9,700 jobs since July 2009.Last year at this time, the area was down 86,400 jobs or -3.3 percent over the previous year (two-year loss was 96,100 jobs).  Educational & Health Services and Government were the two major industry groups adding the most positions, up 9,600 and 7,500 jobs respectively from July 2009. Construction was down 14,700 jobs from this time last year.  

The thirteen county region’s unemployment rate was 8.8 percent, up from the 8.3 percent rate of July 2009.

If you have any questions please contact one of our Business Consultants at your nearest career office, or email joel.wagher@wrksolutions.com.