Oklahoma's post-pandemic recovery has been disappointingly slow relative to the nation. The state and both major metro areas have lagged well behind the U.S. in job formation during much of the recovery period. An already-stalled economy leading into the pandemic…
The economic personalities of the Dallas and Houston metro areas are a bit Jekyll and Hyde at the moment. The Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area has added jobs at an increasing pace since the recession ended, reaching an astounding job growth rate of nearly…
We often refer to Colorado as one of the ‘Super States.’ That select group of high-performing states with strong job and wage growth, rapid in-migration of new residents, an educated workforce, abundant high-tech activity, and so on. You get the picture.
But it is the old fashioned commodity markets, particularly crude oil and natural gas, that are once again acting as a ball and chain to slow down hiring in The Centennial State. The oil and gas industry hit the wall at the end of 2014, and it continues to take some of the starch out of job growth in the state.
The collapse in energy prices (both crude oil and natural gas) will continue to weigh on much of the Oklahoma economy in 2016. Statewide, our projected job loss is -0.6% on a year-over-year basis. The weakness should be widespread but concentrated in a…
Layoffs in the oil and gas sector are now clearly weighing on overall employment in the top-tier energy-producing states. Our pic-of-the-week illustrates the sharp slowdown in job growth in the energy states relative to the non-energy states in just the past six months. In sharp contrast to the strong labor market conditions enjoyed in most other states,