Texas Ranks Last In Job Creation, Among Many Lasts

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), since he launched his presidential campaign on Saturday, has paraded around the stat that “since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40 percent of all of the new jobs created in America.” Gov. Perry says he wants conservative governance to do for America what it has done for Texas. All of the Republican presidential candidates tout no taxes and no government as good for America. So, what has conservative governance given Texas?

Stellar job growth?

Think Progress: In claiming that Texas has create 40% of all new jobs in America Gov. Perry references the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' jobs number. However, the reserve bank “acknowledges that the number comes out different depending on whether one compares Texas to all states or just to states that are adding jobs.”

Between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than in Texas.

In fact, “Texas has done worse than the rest of the country since the peak of national unemployment in October 2009.”

The unemployment rate in Texas has been steadily increasing throughout the recession, and went from 7.7 to 8.2 percent while the state was supposedly creating 40 percent of all the new jobs in the U.S.

How is this possible, since Texas has created over 126,000 jobs since the depths of the recession in February 2009? The fact of the matter is that looking purely at job creation misses a key point, namely that Texas has also experienced population and labor force growth [unequaled in other states. A series of factors also come into play, including that Texas weathered the housing bubble reasonably well due to strict state of Texas mortgage lending "government regulations."] When this is taken into account, Texas’ job creation looks decidedly less impressive:

As Paul Krugman put it, “several factors underlie [Texas'] rapid population growth: a high birth rate, immigration from Mexico, and inward migration of Americans from other states," and more...

A Report from the Texas Legislative Study Group On the State of Our State released in February 2011, at the start of the 82nd Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, assesses Texas' ranking in a number of categories. According to the Study Group's report Texas ranks last in almost every category:

No End in Sight for Texas Drought

The Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex heat wave returned with vigor this week.

The all-time record highest minimum temperature, set just last month, was tied again on the morning of Tuesday, August 16, 2011 when a low of 86 degrees was recorded.

The overnight lows have been exceptionally warm during the past few weeks. The old record high minimum of 85 from 1939 was first exceeded on July 26th was a DFW low of 86.

Overnight lows since July 26, 2011 have tied the new record 4 times, and the average low so far in August is 82.4 degrees, more than 6 degrees above the average.

The pattern ahead suggests very hot temperatures to persist with daily highs 104 to 110 and lows 80 to 85 through next week.

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) argues that climate science is a “contrived phony mess” based on “so-called science” in a “secular carbon cult.” Speaking at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire Wednesday August 17, 2012 Gov. Perry said,

“There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects,” the Texas governor told a group of supporters at the “Politics and Eggs” Breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire.

“I think we are seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man made global warming is what is causing the climate to change,” Perry added. “Yes, our climate has changed. They been changing for ever since the Earth was formed.”

“But I do not buy into a group of scientists, who have been, in some cases, found to be manipulating this information. And the cost to the country and to the world of implementing these anti-carbon programs is in the billions if not trillions of dollars at the end of the day. And I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on still a scientific theory that has not been proven, and from my perspective, is more and more being put into question.” (C-Span video)

See "Global Warming Is A Trick" Climategate claims proven untrue - Times of London Retracts its story. Also see Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. behind Climategate? And see The global cooling myth.

Gov. Perry, who failed to stop the drought with his prayer proclamation, yesterday dismissed any worries about the Texas drought while speaking at the Iowa State Fair. Perry said, “we’ll be fine. As my dad says, it’ll rain. It always does.“

Perry believes that the climate is still normal, unaffected by the 30 billion metric tons of carbon gas human civilization pumps in the biosphere every year, a level expected to increase to 33.8 billion metric tons annually by 2020 and grow to 42.4 billion metric tons annually by 2035.

Texas has grown hotter and drier, with stronger wildfires and torrential storms as climate changing greenhouse gases build in the atmosphere. Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, director of the Texas Tech University Climate Science Center, has said

...this summer is very similar to what is projected under a [climate changing] +2°C global mean temperature increase. We typically average 9 days per year > 100°F in Lubbock; this year we are at 43 and counting.

As of August 2011, 99 percent of Texas was in drought, with a staggering 78 percent in exceptional drought. The state’s farmers and ranchers are expected to lose about $10 billion this year to the killer climate, the worst in history.

The driest 10-month period from late 2010 to August 2011, yet a fresh record for Texas, has devastated the state and its farmers and ranchers. But, there is more to come... The National Weather Service warned Monday:

"THERE IS LITTLE TO SUGGEST ANY END TO THE DROUGHT"

The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said that the La Nina weather phenomenon blamed for the crippling lack of rain over the last 10 months might immediately restart, just two months after the this La Nina cycle ends. If that happens, the drought would almost certainly extend into 2012.

The lack of rain has been made worse by stretch of triple-digit temperatures that started in June. The drought and extreme heat has caused reservoirs to evaporate, crops to wither and animals and fish to die off by the tens of thousands.

TFN: Rick Perry - Politics, Faith And The Culture Wars

The culture wars will feature prominently in Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Over the past decade Gov. Perry has turned his office into a command post for "culture warriors" on the far right. The Texas Freedom Network has put together a primer on Gov. Perry’s record in the culture wars at www.tfn.org/rickperry.

The Texas Miracle That Wasn't

Paul Krugman asked in his recent NYT OpEd,

"so where does the notion of a Texas "job growth" miracle come from?" And, he answered, "Mainly from widespread misunderstanding of the economic effects of population growth … Texas tends, in good years and bad, to have higher job growth than the rest of America. But it needs lots of new jobs just to keep up with its rising population — and as those unemployment comparisons show, recent employment growth has fallen well short of what’s needed."

Felix Salmon: How does employment in Texas compare to employment in the rest of the country.

Nick Rizzo collated the data for this chart, taking employment figures from Google’s Public Data Explorer, and filling it out with population data from the Census Bureau and — for the 2011 population of Texas — the Texas Department of State Health Services. Here’s the result:

The employment-to-population ratio in this chart is lower than the employment-to-population ratio we normally see, because it includes everyone, from infants to convicted felons.

According to the figures we have for 2011, 44.7% of the total US population has a job, compared to 43.5% of the Texas population.

Perry inherited a ratio of more than 47% in Texas from George W Bush, and has presided over a steady decline ever since — including every year of the Bush presidency bar 2005.

Krugman: A Short Course in Miracles