Dallas Fed Noting Uptick in Energy Sector Hires

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Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Job growth in Texas improved for the first time in months in January, with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas pointing to an uptick in hires in the energy sector.

The Dallas Fed said Monday that statewide job growth improved 3.4% year-over-year in January, with Texas adding 39,700 people to the payroll.

"January job growth was strong and broad-based, led by increases in the energy and education and health sectors," said Jesus Canas, a senior business economist at the Dallas Fed. "Only employment in the information sector dropped."

Canas said the latest data suggests Texas could add about 275,000 jobs to its payrolls by the end of the year. The Dallas Fed found that 244,000 jobs were added to Texas payrolls last year, a 1.7% increase from 2023 levels.

Job growth, however, was suppressed relative to the year-over-year gain of 2.4% in 2023. And over the three-months ending in December, the Dallas Fed's leading job's index showed a decline.

Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) (Charlotte, North Carolina) and Chesapeake, which has merged with Southwestern Energy Corporation to form Expand Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:EXE) (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), both announced layoffs last year.

Jeff Miller, the top executive at Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) (Houston, Texas), said in the company's fourth-quarter 2024 report that he expected North American operations would be "softer" this year.

The Dallas Fed's upbeat outlook on jobs follows a report last week from the Labor Department showing there were 7.7 million job postings in January, up from the 7.5 million the prior month.

Speaking last week at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Energy Secretary Chris Wright blamed the previous administration for enacting policies that would lead to higher energy prices and fewer jobs.

"Making energy more expensive has impoverished citizens and displaced energy-intensive manufacturing, along with the well-paying blue-collar jobs," he said in his prepared remarks.

President Donald Trump is working to reshore the economy and undo what he sees as burdensome regulations. He's leaned heavily on advancing the domestic energy sector, while embracing protectionist economic policy by way of tariffs. Those tariffs could be highly disruptive for an intertwined North American economy, however.

On Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revised its growth forecasts for both this year and the next due to trade uncertainties. Led by a contraction in the Mexican economy, data points to a chance for a North American downturn next year.

"Activity would be stronger and inflation lower in all three economies if these tariff increases were lower or confined to a smaller range of goods, but global growth would still be weaker than previously expected," the OECD said in reference to the Canadian, Mexican and U.S. economies.

Recent reports, meanwhile, make no mention of the widescale layoffs from a Trump administration keen on reducing the size of the federal government.

Trump is expected to meet with oil and gas officials later this week.

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