Texas job growth came mostly from government jobs
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has built the early stages of his presidential campaign on his state’s ability to create jobs during the last two years of his governorship. The ‘Texas Miracle,’ Perry often says, is responsible for 40 percent of the net new jobs created in America since June 2009. The ‘Miracle’ is no miracle at all — Texas has the nation’s worst job creation record when adjusted for labor force growth — but Republican voters have lapped up the message, pushing Perry to a double-digit lead in early primary polls.
But at a time when federal, state, and local governments continue to shed jobs — more than 500,000 since President Obama took office in 2009 — a bulk of the job creation in Texas has come in the public sector. While Perry espouses small government rhetoric, the ‘Texas Miracle’ created state and local government jobs at a faster rate than any state in the nation, according to 2010 Census data released Tuesday:
Census data showed Texas also boosted employment. The Lone Star state had the biggest percentage increase in state workers, 5.9 percent, from 2009 to 2010. That represented a gain of 17,800 full-time jobs.Local governments in Texas also added the most part-time jobs of all cities, counties and towns, 24,731.