Unemployment Rises Again In Texas

Governor Rick Perry may not realize Texas is in the middle of a recession, but you can bet Texas workers are very aware of it. Even those with jobs have to be wondering if they'll still have those jobs a month or a few months down the road. That's because the unemployment rate is still climbing in Texas.

In September, the state lost an additional 44,700 jobs. That pushed the state's unemployment rate from 8.0% to 8.2% (and really much higher when you add in those who's benefits have run out, those who have given up, and those who have taken part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work).

Perry and his rich corporate buddies may not be hurting, but ordinary Texans certainly are. Here are the September unemployment figures for the urban areas of Texas (August figures are in parentheses):

Abilene 6.3 (6.1)

Amarillo 5.8 (5.6)

Austin-Round Rock 7.2 (7.2)

Beaumont-Port Arthur 10.8 (10.7)

Brownsville-Harlingen 10.8 (10.5)

College Station-Bryan 6.5 (6.4)

Corpus Christi 8.0 (7.8)

Dallas-Plano-Irving 8.3 (8.2)

El Paso 9.8 (9.6)

Fort Worth-Arlington 8.3 (8.3)

Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown 8.5 (8.4)

Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood 7.3 (7.0)

Laredo 9.1 (9.1)

Longview 8.3 (8.3)

Lubbock 5.7 (5.7)

McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 11.6 (11.4)

Midland 6.2 (6.1)

Odessa 9.2 (9.3)

San Angelo 7.0 (6.7)

San Antonio 7.1 (7.0)

Sherman-Denison 8.7 (8.5)

Texarkana 6.8 (6.6)

Tyler 8.3 (7.8)

Victoria 8.1 (7.9)

Waco 7.1 (7.3)

Wichita Falls 7.9 (7.9)

Even some areas of the state that seem to be doing OK according to the numbers, may be in deeper trouble than realized. Here in Amarillo, a large company recently announced they would be hiring 125 people. They got 4,000 applications for those jobs (according to a local TV station).