The Houston area still has a long way to go to fully recover the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost amid the shutdown and economic downturn.
The latest numbers show a downward trend in first time unemployment claims in the Houston area. Since the March/April downturn, our area has managed to get back about 130,000 jobs. However, we are still short 220,000 jobs. Patrick Jankowski is the Senior Vice President of Research at the Greater Houston Partnership.
“My concern is that it’s going to take a long time to recoup 220,000. That’s like two years job growth in a really boom year. [So,] we could be seeing an elevated level of unemployment for quite some time,” Jankowski said.
He anticipates Houston won't be able to get back to pre-pandemic numbers until the national economy picks back up and crude oil starts trading above 50 dollars a barrel.