The Partnership sends updates for the most important economic indicators each month. If you would like to opt-in to receive these updates, please click here.

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes 

Metro Houston’s unemployment rate was 4.8 percent in July. That’s up from 4.5 percent in July of last year and on par with July ’22. As recently as this April, the rate was 3.8 percent. 

Houston’s unemployment rate typically peaks around July or August each year and trends down through autumn, falling by as much as 0.8 percentage points by December. The current bump likely reflects slower economic growth and the aftereffects of Hurricane Beryl as well as the normal cyclical pattern.

Among cities in the Houston region for which TWC publishes unemployment rates, Bryan had the lowest in July and Baytown the highest.

Initial claims for unemployment benefits ticked up immediately after Hurricane Beryl hit Houston but have since returned to normal levels. The 8,257 claims logged in the first two weeks of August this year fall below the 8,474 claims logged in the same two weeks of August ’23. 

Continued claims filed by workers unemployed a week or more tell another story. They jumped in July and are 10,000 higher than July of last year. Two factors likely account for the surge—delays in Houstonians returning to work after Hurricane Beryl and a gradual softening of the labor market as indicated by weaker employment reports in June and July and the nationwide decline in job openings recently noted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 

Prepared by Greater Houston Partnership Research

Patrick Jankowski, CERP
Chief Economist 
Senior Vice President, Research
pjankowski@houston.org

Leta Wauson
Research Director
lwauson@houston.org