The unemployment rate in Texas held steady at 8.2 percent in January, matching the revised figure from December, a state agency said Thursday.
The Texas Workforce Commission said the release of detailed job figures for each industry was delayed by recent bad weather on the East Coast.
The delay also affected an annual revision of the state's job numbers that is usually announced the first week of March, said commission spokeswoman Ann Hatchitt.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported this week that Texas lost more than 329,000 jobs last year, nearly 20 percent higher than the commission's preliminary figure of about 276,000. Hatchitt said the revised figures could be closer to the Dallas Fed estimate.
Despite the job losses, the Texas labor force reached a peak of 12.1 million workers in January, the commission said. The jobless rate in Texas remained well below the national figure of 9.7 percent.
The state's December unemployment rate was revised downward from 8.3 percent.
Unemployment rates are adjusted for seasonal trends in hiring and firing, which most economists believe gives a better picture of the job market.
Business News
Amarillo maintained the state's lowest local rate, which is not seasonally adjusted. The following are the preliminary January jobless rates for specific areas of Texas, with revised December numbers in parentheses.
Abilene 6.7 (6.0)
Amarillo 6.0 (5.4)
Austin-Round Rock 7.6 (7.0)
Beaumont-Port Arthur 11.0 (10.4)
Brownsville-Harlingen 11.6 (10.8)
College Station-Bryan 6.4 (5.7)
Corpus Christi 8.4 (7.7)
Dallas-Plano-Irving 8.7 (8.0)
El Paso 9.9 (9.2)
Fort Worth-Arlington 8.7 (8.0)
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown 8.8 (8.2)
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood 7.8 (7.1)
Laredo 9.6 (8.8)
Longview 8.3 (7.8)
Lubbock 6.2 (5.5)
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 12.2 (11.5)
Midland 6.2 (5.7)
Odessa 9.2 (8.7)
San Angelo 7.0 (6.4)
San Antonio-New Braunfels 7.7 (6.9)
Sherman-Denison 8.9 (8.2)
Texarkana n/a (6.7)
Tyler 8.6 (8.0)
Victoria 8.3 (7.8)
Waco 7.4 (6.8)
Wichita Falls 8.4 (7.6)
