Unemployment hits 6.5 percent in Houston

Houston Business Journal

New figures from the Texas Workforce Commission show unemployment is continuing to rise in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area.

According to the report released Thursday, 183,000 people in the area were without jobs in January — an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent — compared with 155,700, or 5.6 percent, in December 2008.

The figures are a significant increase from January 2008, when 125,900 people, or 4.6 percent of the work force, were registered as unemployed.

According to the report, unemployment in Texas as a whole hit 6.8 percent in January, up from 5.7 percent in December 2008 and 5.4 percent in January 2007. Seasonally adjusted, the state's unemployment rate in January was 6.4 percent.

“The national economic crisis is beginning to have a serious, negative impact on our Texas economy,” said Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken.

However, Texas' overall unemployment rate is still lower than the average U.S. unemployment rate of 7.6 percent, according to the TWC.