Texas records another month of record job growth in March

Karoline Leonard

Austin American-Statesman

USA TODAY NETWORK

Texas faced exponential growth in 2023 and 2024, and those trends aren't slowing down as the Lone Star State sees another month of record employment numbers.

In March, Texas saw a new high with the largest labor force in the state's history at 15,778,500, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Texas Workforce Commission.

According to the data, Texas saw a new high of 15,137,500 for Texans working. This number includes those who are self-employed.

The state also added 26,500 nonfarm jobs last month, reaching a new total high of 14,282,600. Between March 2024 and March 2025, the state added 192,100 nonfarm jobs, which was more than any other state.

As of January employment data, the annual nonfarm growth rate in Texas is 1.3%.

'Every month, Texas welcomes businesses from across the country and around the world to innovate and invest in our great state,' Gov. Greg Abbott said in a release Friday about the data. 'By funding our schools more than ever before and expanding career and technical training programs, we will prepare more Texans for better job and bigger paycheck opportunities to build a more prosperous Texas.'

Job creation, workforce development and education have been major efforts pushed by Abbott this legislative session.

Last month, he released a five-year statewide economic development strategic plan outlining a blueprint for economic expansion and job creation.

The 'Bigger. Better. Texas.' plan has four main goals:

•Establishes a unifying vision for the future of our Texas economy

•Identifies new target industry sectors and clusters expected to drive strategic economic growth and job creation

•Outlines objectives and initiatives to advance the state’s global competitiveness

•Provides data and recommendations to inform economic development decisions across the state

To support additional job creation and small businesses in Texas, Abbott also created the Governor's Small Business Freedom Council in December. This month, he announced more than $1.3 million in job training grants to Collin County Community College District for programs in health care, accounting, manufacturing and other high-demand occupations. House Bill 20 and House Bill 120, two bills part of Abbott's career training expansion efforts that was one of his seven emergency items this legislative session, advanced out of the Texas House last week.

Texas saw rapid job growth in 2023 and 2024 as well.

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas looking at the outlook of Texas' economy in 2025 said Texas' energy, financial services and construction industries were the fastest-growing job sectors last year, growing 5.5%, 5.1% and 3.1%, respectively. Overall, job growth rose 1.7% lower than initial projections expected in 2024.

Texas added 284,200 jobs from December 2023 to December 2024, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.