By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-889061.mp3
Dallas, TX – By one measure, unemployment in Texas remained at 8.2% in January, the same as in December. But KERA's Shelley Kofler reports, every industry group in North Texas cut jobs.
Eight-point-two percent (8.2%) is the adjusted unemployment rate in January, the number economists come up with when they subtract Texans who were hired for the holidays then laid off.
That temporary, holiday workforce included almost 87,000 Texans. When you include them, the January unemployment rate jumps to 8.6 percent, as the Texas Workforce Commission's Ann Hatchitt explains.
Hatchitt: In January we would actually see the effect of people who had been employed for the holidays during December and November no longer being needed by the retail industry. So we would have a jump in the unemployment rate not seasonally adjusted.
Hatchitt says unemployment in North Texas was slightly above the state average and jumped notably between December and January.
In the area that includes Dallas, Plano and Irving job loss in January affected more than seasonal retail employment. Every industry cut jobs, including government, education and health services, sectors that have accounted for some job growth over the past year.