McAllen Unemployment Down for Third Straight Month

McALLEN [11.22.11] – Employment was up and unemployment down for the third straight month in the City of McAllen with close to 600 more people employed in October than last month, according to the latest numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission.

McAllen also has the most people employed in its history, 59,346, according to the Workforce Commission’s records. The city had only broken 59,000 once before in March of this year. But with its overall labor force growing, unemployment falling and an economic upward trend in play, the city has been able to grow jobs.

The city’s unemployment rate sunk to 7.7 percent, its lowest in six months employing 573 more than September. The city’s unemployment rate is back down to what it was one year ago, but McAllen has more jobs than October of 2010. TWC recorded 4,939 unemployed in McAllen, the lowest in five months.

Most cities and metro areas in the state recorded lower unemployment rates for October, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. The McAllen figure for October was once again the lowest among Rio Grande Valley cities and the second lowest among all border cities in the state. Only Laredo was lower at 7.3 percent.

McAllen was a bit below the state and national rates and lower than cities such as Houston (7.9), Fort Worth (8.2), Waco (8.4), Tyler (8.4), Dallas (8.7), El Paso (9.4) and Beaumont (10.5). The TWC also reported that in Hidalgo County, Edinburg employed 30,923, Mission 26,529 and Pharr 24,217. Regionally, the cities of Corpus Christi and San Antonio recorded 7.1 percent and 7.3 unemployment rates, respectively. Also, Midland had the lowest rate in Texas among major cities at 4.5 percent. Brownsville recorded the highest at 11.8 percent.

The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission MSA unemployment rate for October was down to 11.6 percent (with about 2,671 more people employed than last month), according to the TWC, and the Brownsville-Harlingen MSA checked in at 11.9 percent. Texas’ statewide jobless rate dropped to 8.0 percent while the nation edged down to 8.5 percent.