In looking at the Texas Workforce Commission’s latest employment numbers, the Houston metro area lost 18,300 jobs – a seasonal amount – in July, with construction accounting for 5,000 of those losses, in large part due to the wind down in the industrial/petrochemical work on the east side of Houston. This puts Houston’s construction employment down 4,800 jobs since the start of the year and negative year over year. The slide shown here from Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors, shows Houston, overall, has had positive job growth in 2017, having added 6,900 jobs year to date.
While optimism surrounding the price of oil may be waning from the beginning of 2017, the Houston construction market continues to hum along at a surprisingly steady pace – down a bit, but not as bad as expected. City of Houston permits, while not reflective of the entire metro area, show a significant drop in dollar volume for residential permits. Digging deeper, the culprit is the additions/alterations segment, down 55% from a year ago, and likely due to the drop off in the multifamily sector.
August 15, 2017
On June 2, the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve Bank released its latest economic update for the region. Texas, overall, is growing at a moderate pace and “boosted by the recent stability in oil prices, Houston employment expanded for a fifth consecutive month in May, registering the fastest year-to-date growth among the major metros,” as evidenced in the chart shown here.
July 14, 2017
Recent employment numbers show Houston MSA added a surprisingly strong 18,700 jobs in April. Maybe too strong, according to Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership.
June 14, 2017
The following article originally appeared in the May newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, now a part of FMI Corporation, for the purpose of providing the latest leading indicators and industry issues to those clients. Reprinted with permission .
Two and a half years after the fateful Thanksgiving OPEC decision in 2014, our Houston construction market is starting to feel the full impact of oil’s decline. Increasingly, contractors are having to look to public work for the meatier projects as the private sector waits for energy prices to stabilize.
May 05, 2017
The latest benchmark revisions to the Houston MSA employment numbers show a significantly lower net gain of 200 jobs in 2015 and a more robust 18,700 in 2016, signaling that 2015 may have been slower than originally thought, but that momentum began to increase at a more rapid pace in 2016.For construction, which lags behind the overall Houston economy, public work continues to dominate. The Texas Department of Transportation and Harris County Toll Road Authority have unveiled over $2 billion in freeway improvements over the next five years, with the hopes of dramatically improving mobility across the city.
April 07, 2017
The following article originally appeared in the February newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, now a part of FMI Corporation, for the purpose of providing the latest leading indicators and industry issues to those clients. Reprinted with permission.Houston managed to squeak through 2016 with a net job growth of 14,800 jobs. For what many economists have stated is the worst recession to hit Houston in decades, that is a major achievement for our region and a testament to the diversification of our city.Thanks to our ever-growing Port of Houston and Texas Medical Center, and the heavy industrial boom on the east side of town, Houston was buffered from a more severe downturn. However, companies were also quicker to act. Right-sizing and making the difficult decisions early. Breaking the bone to ensure it resets itself right the first time.
February 10, 2017
The following article originally appeared in the January newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, now a part of FMI Corporation, for the purpose of providing the latest leading indicators and industry issues to those clients. Reprinted with permission.“[2017] isn’t likely to be a banner year for the region’s economy, but it should be a further step on the road back to robust growth.” Those were the sentiments of Patrick Jankowski, Senior Vice President of Research at the Greater Houston Partnership, after unveiling his Houston employment forecast of 29,700 for 2017.For construction, however, there is still more pain to be had. Digging into Jankowski’s numbers, construction is predicted to lose 16,000 jobs in 2017, largely due to the expected slowdown in the heavy industrial work. City of Houston permits also continue to track down in total dollar volume from a year ago, and are more heavily weighted to renovations and additions rather than new construction.
January 04, 2017
The following article originally appeared in the December newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, LLC for the purpose of providing the latest leading indicators and industry issues to those clients. Reprinted with permission.On November 10th, in front of thousands of attendees, Dr. Bill Gilmer, Director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston, laid out his forecast for Houston in 2017. After recognizing the bumpy and considerably steep decline in the energy sector, Dr. Gilmer remained optimistic about Houston’s economy overall, feeling that the worst is likely in the rear view mirror and that Houston will begin to recover in 2017.Dr. Gilmer outlined a series of scenarios, largely dependent on when the energy sector will rebound, with the weighted average being a loss of approximately 22,000 job growth in 2016, 4,500 jobs added in 2017 and then ramping up to 74,800 jobs in 2018 and 85,100 in 2019.
December 02, 2016
The following article originally appeared in the November newsletter to clients of Kiley Advisors, LLC for the purpose of providing the latest leading indicators and industry issues to those clients. Reprinted with permission.The worst is likely behind us. At least that was the sentiment around a panel of economists discussing Houston’s economy. While the recovery will be slower and longer than previous recessions, barring an unforeseen event, it appears that Houston is beginning to recover.The focus of the panel, instead, was on how far Houston fell before the change in direction. An early re-benchmark of the employment numbers by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows employment numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission will likely be revised down, though how far is anyone’s guess.
November 03, 2016
