Texas Regional Outlook, 2002: The Coastal Bend Region Page: 4
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The Coastal Bend Region
.:'.
. .. . .. ... ;%rismall job losses in the early months of 2002.
Construction growth continued through most of
2001 because of the backlog of active projects,
but ended with year-to-year job losses. Growth
slowed from a 9.2 percent annual rate at the end
of 1998, to 5.2 percent at the end of 1999, to 3.8
percent at the end of 2000 and to a loss of 1.5
percent, or 8,500 jobs, from April 2001 to April
2002.
Even considering relatively low mortgage
rates and the revival of residential construction
activity, the state's weaker economy and higher
office vacancy rates point to a further decelera-
tion in statewide construction employment
growth over the short term, thereby dampening
the demand for new construction projects. In
2002, statewide construction employment is
expected to decline 2.2 percent and then stabi-
lize, with essentially no growth in 2003.
Transportation, Communications
and Public Utilities:
September 11 Hits Hard
Perhaps more than any other sector, trans-
portation, communications and public utilities
(TPU) has been adversely affected by the events
of September 11. After the September 11 attacks,
U.S. air traffic dropped and layoffs were
announced at most major U.S. air carriers,
including Texas-based American and Continental
Airlines. Consequently, job growth in the states
air transportation industry fell from a year-to-
year gain of 4,400 in April 2001 to a year-to-year
loss of 8,800 in April 2002. Largely because of
these losses, TPU lost 24,200 jobs from April
2001 to April 2002, a 4.0 percent drop.
Although national air traffic is showing
some signs of recovery, it will take a long time
for it to recover to pre-September 11 levels.
After peaking at 695 million U.S. passenger
enplanements in fiscal 2000, enplanements are
expected to reach only 600 million in 2002.
In recent years, Texas' trucking, warehous-
ing and a number of other transportation servic-
es have benefited from the expanding national
and state economies, as well as from increasing4 Texas Regional Outlook
trade with Mexico. In 2001, while the U.S. and
Texas economies were stumbling, trade with
Mexico remained fairly resilient through much
of the year. But the U.S. recession eventually
started taking a toll out of this trade as well, and
employment in trucking and warehousing was
down 2.6 percent, or 3,700 jobs, by April 2002.
With the rapidly growing popularity of the
Internet and cellular communications, Texas
communications employment boomed at a 7 per-
cent average annual rate from 1999 to 2001. The
weakened economy and national recession took
hold and intensified here as well, so that by April
2002, employment in this sector had fallen by
8,500 jobs statewide, or 5.5 percent, largely
because of layoffs at the state's major telephone
providers.
Finally, utilities employment-until the col-
lapse of Enron-had enjoyed a trend-bucking
year, growing by 4,000 jobs, or 5.4 percent, from
October 2000 to October 2001, largely because
of the deregulation of the state's electric utility
sector. The construction of gas-fired electricity
generation facilities in Texas has boomed in
recent years, as the prospect of selling power at
a reasonable return to the state's rapidly growing
residential, industrial and commercial sectors
emerged. However, with Enron's bankruptcy and
ensuing layoffs, the utilities sector quickly lost
the 4,000 jobs it had gained the previous year.
Even with job gains in electric utilities, by April
2002 the utilities sector overall had 1,300 fewer
employees than in April 2001, a loss of 1.7 per-
cent.
Over the next two years, Texas TPU
employment will gain strength as the air trans-
portation sector shows renewed vigor and the
U.S. and Mexican economies improve. Overall
in 2002, net TPU job growth of 2.6 percent is
expected. As the share of the TPU industry rep-
resented by sectors such as Internet communica-
tions, air transportation and trucking has
increased, the industry has become more sensi-
tive to economic upturns than in previous
decades. Industry growth will accelerate to 4
percent in 2003.
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Texas. Comptroller's Office. Texas Regional Outlook, 2002: The Coastal Bend Region, report, June 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth654571/m1/10/?q=%221997~%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.