Houston is creating jobs at roughly four times the pace of the rest of the country, according to the Greater Houston Partnership's annual Midyear Economic Update.
The overview
During the presentation, which highlights trends in the regional economy over the last year, Colin Baker, the organization's director of economic research, said Houston accounted for about 8% of the nation's job growth over the past 12 months.
“[Houston had] quite a bit of a healthier job market here compared to the rest of the country,” Baker said.
Measuring the impact
Baker said Houston created 39,700 jobs in fiscal year 2025-26, which is about four times the pace of the rest of the country. The United States as a whole saw around 531,000 jobs created in the past 12 months.
Houston’s job market growth is No. 3 in the U.S., below New York City and Dallas, according to the presentation.
The full top five rankings are:
- New York: 69,100 jobs
- Dallas: 54,600 jobs
- Houston: 39,700 jobs
- Los Angeles: 37,400 jobs
- Phoenix: 33,200 jobs
“We see Texas clearly doing some good things to be up at the top here, and we see most major metros were creating jobs during this period,” Baker said. “Only significant losses were in Washington, D.C., where they had all of those federal layoffs occur over the course of last year.”
By the numbers
The industry with the most job growth in Houston was construction, according to the presentation. Typically, healthcare is the city’s No. 1 job growth sector, Baker said. However, the city added 15,000 construction jobs last year.
“We saw significant investment in terms of public infrastructure projects,” he said. “We're thinking about roadways being repaved, electrical infrastructure with the resiliency plan that CenterPoint [Energy] had, investment in water projects, Port of Houston, IAH expansion. So that led to a lot of that construction last year.”
Baker said that some infrastructure hiring is leveling off, but other industries like administrative support are growing, with 10,000 jobs created in the last year. Many of those jobs are in employment services and temp worker positions, he added.
“We see there's clearly demand among a lot of our businesses for these temporary workers, and some of them may be trying to figure out how they're going to integrate that demand into their longer-term hiring plans,” he said.
Other growing industries were:
- Healthcare: 6,800 jobs
- Restaurants and bars: 4,500 jobs
- Professional, science and tech services: 3,100 jobs
- Retail: 2,200 jobs
On the other hand, some industries saw losses, including arts and recreation, real estate and equipment rentals, oil and gas extraction, and finance and insurance.
One more thing
Baker said one benefit that Houston is able to provide is jobs for all levels of professions and education.
“I think one thing that stands out about Houston is that we're not as dominated as some other metros by white-collar professions; there's still plenty of great ways to hit the ground running in blue-collar work,” he said. “Certainly, plenty of great professional accreditations. People can get associate's degrees; people can get help to equip themselves as they enter the workforce.”
