By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-876687.mp3
Dallas, TX –
For the 2nd straight month, Texas added jobs in November, more than 17,000. That's after months of losses. The states' unemployment figure fell from 8.3 percent to 8 percent. In North Texas, the unemployment number dropped below 8 percent.
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Bud Weinstein. with SMU's Cox School of Business, says it's too soon to call it a trend, but he's cautiously optimistic.
Weinstein: The most recent data seem to indicate the worst is over , that the state and regional economies are on the mend and that's certainly good news going into 2010.
Weinstein says he wants to see 4 to 6 months of job growth to confirm the improvements.
The Texas Workforce Commission says new jobs were not just from retail hiring for the holidays. Jobs rose in many industries, from logging and mining to financial services. Still, the state has lost nearly 300 thousand jobs since last year, with about a third of those in North Texas.
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