Even though the state’s job market remained mostly stagnant on average, the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area finally saw some relief in March after two months of rising joblessness.
The regional unemployment rate fell a full percent between February and March, landing at 10.8% and leaving the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA with the third highest unemployment rate in the state for another month.
After starting to stabilize in the fall of 2020, the area’s unemployment rate stagnated and then started rising again after December, jumping from 10.4% to 11.6% in January.
The local rate rose again in February to 11.8%, but Port Arthur saw an even greater isolated rise to almost 18%, one of its highest rates since the pandemic began. The area lost 200 jobs in manufacturing and 100 in transportation, warehousing and utilities.
But, despite some of the darker signs in the market, Workforce Solutions Southeast Texas Executive Director Mary Hammon said stable numbers in some of the region’s stronger sectors would hopefully deliver good news in March.
“The job increases and retention of jobs in February seem to indicate we are starting to see improvement in the Southeast Texas labor market,” Hammon said in a February report. “We hope to see continued improvement when the March labor market data is released. We encourage employers with job openings to seek out assistance from our Workforce Center representatives, so we can share this information with job seekers in our area.”
Even though the jobless rate for the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA did improve slightly, the region's largest counties — Jefferson, Orange and Hardin — now have an increasing number of workers claiming unemployment benefits.
The number of claims has steadily been increasing since February. Claims have now grown from a rolling average of over 3,000 claimants in the week of March 6 to around 4,500 as of April 3.
In the latest update from the Texas Workforce Commission, a new industry sector took the top spot from unemployment benefit claims that have been led by restaurant workers and construction workers connected to heavy industry.
Employees of elementary and secondary schools are now leading unemployment claims in the three county area.
In the rest of the state, most industry sectors experienced growth in March except for government jobs, which TWC administration took as a positive sign after 10 straight months of job growth falling the worst of the pandemic job loss in mid-2020.
"Positive job numbers for March continue to show Texas is on track for continued growth," said TWC Chairman Bryan Daniel. "TWC will continue to provide flexible and innovative training programs to help provide all Texans with skills they can use for workforce success."
Texas had the second largest job gain in the country with over 99,000 non-farm jobs added in March.
April’s job numbers are expected to be released May 21, but they could hold signs of further troubles for Southeast Texas’ industrial sectors.
Trinity Rail Maintenance Services, a branch of Dallas-based Trinity Industries, expects to lay off 59 people by the end of April, according to the Workforce Commission.
Another wave of layoffs is expected in the following month.
Mitsubishi Chemical announced in November that it would be closing the Lucite International facility between Beaumont and Nederland that employs around 164 full-time workers.
In a notice to the state filed on Jan. 25, Lucite International said 99 people would be laid off by the beginning of May.
jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com
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