Workforce Solutions reports Amarillo unemployment numbers.
/ Pronews 7's Emily Griffin
AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Only 96,000 jobs were added throughout the nation during the month of August. That's according to the jobs report that came out Friday.
That's a number fewer than what experts predicted, meaning not-so-good news for jobs-seekers in the United States. However, the unemployment rate in Amarillo still remained lower than the national average.
According to Workforce Solutions in Amarillo, in July, Amarillo's unemployment rate was only 5.5. That's in comparison to the Texas unemployment rate of 7.5 and the national unemployment rate of 8.6. In fact, Amarillo had the third lowest unemployment rate in the state of Texas, only surpassed by Midland and Odessa.
Officials with Workforce Solutions said the unemployment rate always goes up during the summer, due to the natural business cycle, but overall Amarillo's economy has fared better than the rest of the country for years. That's thanks in part, to the area's diverse economic resources.
"We always think that there's diversity in our economy here and the types of jobs so we typically don't gain a whole lot or lose a whole lot at one time," said Workforce Solutions Director Trent Morris. "So, diversity is probably the number one answer to that."
Also, Amarillo employed about 3,000 more people during July of 2012 than in July of 2011. Even still, there are still plenty of people unemployed in the Amarillo and surrounding areas and that's means people continued to enlist the help of Workforce Solutions when job hunting.
"There's still, even though we have a low unemployment rate compared to the rest of the country, there's still 7,000 plus people that are out of work in the Panhandle," added Morris. "So, that means there's still a never-ending job for us to find every one of those people a job."
