Unemployment and Jobs in Houston

Strong job and industry growth are essential to increasing economic opportunity and security for all Houstonians

Houston’s three-county region continues to have strong jobs and industry growth over the last decade.

The data

Houston-area unemployment rates hold steady from 2022 to 2023

The unemployment rate measures the share of workers in the labor force who do not currently have a job but are actively looking for work. The level of unemployment is a general measure of how the overall economy is operating, and changes in the rate can be an important signal of changes in the labor market and economy.

During the Great Recession in 2010, unemployment rates in Fort Bend and Montgomery counties were at a 30-year high but steadily declined to a two-decade low in 2019. Of course, unemployment rates spiked in 2020 — the result of pandemic-related job losses. However, between 2020 and 2022, unemployment rates declined significantly returning to pre-pandemic levels. Since 2022, unemployment across the three-county region and Texas has remained relatively stable, with year-over-year changes increasing by no more than 0.2 percentage points. By contrast, national unemployment rose 0.4 percentage points in 2024 and an additional 0.3 percentage points in 2025. In 2025, the unemployment rate in Harris County (4.5%) was highest in Houston’s three-county region, while the unemployment rate was 4.3% in Fort Bend and 4.1% in Montgomery County.

Job growth in Houston’s three-county region is positive but slower from 2022

Job growth is a key indicator of economic expansion and a strong job market. As a leading economic indicator, robust job growth typically signals a healthy economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected job availability with all three counties, the state, and the nation experiencing the steepest single-year job losses in at least a decade. Recovery began in 2021, and by 2022, job growth reached its highest levels in years. Since then, year-over-year job growth has slowed with Fort Bend County experiencing the sharpest decline in job growth, decreasing by ten percentage points between 2022 and 2024.

Even so, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties continued to experience larger year-over-year job growth compared to the state and nation. In 2024, job growth compared to the previous year was 3.6% in Fort Bend County, 2.1% in Montgomery County, 1.0% in Harris County. This is compared to a growth in jobs of 1.2% across Texas and the country. Looking at trends over a longer period between 2010 and 2024, job growth in Fort Bend (94.6%), Montgomery County (80.9%), and Harris County (22.1%) outpaced the nation overall (20.5%).

Industries in Houston see steady, consistent growth

Texas and Houston’s three-county area continue to be a place of business opportunity and growth. According to the Greater Houston Partnership, which provides economic data and analysis for the nine-county Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Metropolitan Statistical Area (Houston MSA), found that the region ranks third in the number of  Fortune 500 headquarters.

Between 2010 and 2024, Houston’s three-county region saw the greatest growth in businesses in the following industries: education and health services,leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services. Growth in Houston-area businesses has occurred in each of the three counties, with Fort Bend and Montgomery counties experiencing the fastest business growth — mirroring their rapid population growth. While it may appear that Harris County business growth has slowed, the lower growth rates are more a reflection of a large, existing set of businesses already in Harris County, and so while growth continues for the county, its relative growth is smaller compared to its rapidly growing neighbors. 

Fort Bend County has doubled the number of business establishments between 2010 and 2024, with the greatest growth in education and health services (139%), followed closely by professional and business services (138%), and then leisure and hospitality (124%).

In Harris County, the number of establishments increased by 24% from 2010 to 2024 — a slower growth rate given the volume in the third most populous county in the nation. Among the largest three industries, establishments in education and health services grew the most (58%), followed by leisure and hospitality (44%), and professional and business services (32%).

The number of establishments in Montgomery County grew by 77% between 2010 and 2024. Among the largest three industries, establishments in education and health services grew the most (119%), followed by leisure and hospitality (98%), and information (97%).

The top Houston-area job is in office and administrative support

The type of work people do, or occupational mix, is important to understanding the economy of a region. Changes in occupation often reflect business innovations. When a business adopts new technology, produces new products, or makes other changes to its processes, doing so usually causes changes in occupational mix. For example, if a factory automates, the number of production workers usually declines, while the number of engineers increases.²

There have been five major shifts in the occupational mix in U.S. history: the decline of agricultural employment (1870 to 1970), the rise of office work (1870 to 1970), the decline of manual labor (1940 to 1970), the decline of production work (1950 to 2010), and the rise of management (1970 to 2005).³

The top Houston-area job in each county is in office and administrative support, and while the counties share commonalities in occupational mix, there are notable differences. In Fort Bend County, most people are employed as office and administrative support (11.5%), food prep and serving (10.6%), educational instruction (10.4%), and sales (10.0%). In Harris County, most residents are employed as office and administrative support (11.9%) and transportation/warehouse (9.5%), reflecting the significance of trade in Houston — which is a major distribution center for the nation and globe, as the port of Houston is the top foreign trading port in the U.S. by weight. In Montgomery County, most workers are employed as office and administrative support (11.9%), food prep and serving (11.6%), and sales (9.9%).

More than half of Houston-area jobs pay more than $40,000 annually

Availability of jobs is crucial, but it is equally important that those jobs offer fair and livable wages. The Census categorizes jobs as low-wage (i.e., jobs that pay $15,000 or less annually), medium-wage, and high-wage, with “high-wage” jobs being any work that earns more than $40,000 annually. An individual earning more than $40,000 annually is living above the Federal Poverty Line, however, they are not earning enough to make ends meet given the line’s rudimentary determination.

To understand wage patterns across the Houston region, it helps to know that the Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data measures jobs two different ways:

• Work Area Characteristics (WAC) count jobs based on where jobs are located using the employment location.
• Residence Area Characteristics (RAC) count jobs based on where workers live using the resident’s location.

These two lenses can tell different stories, especially in a region like Houston where many people commute across county lines.

Looking at where jobs are located (WAC), 59.9 of jobs in the three-county area are classified as “high-wage” positions, in that they pay more than $40,000 annually. Harris County has the highest share of high-wage jobs (61.4%), followed by Montgomery County (55.2%) and Fort Bend County (49.0%). This has been the trend since at least 2010.

However, when looking at where workers live (RAC), the pattern changes. Harris County residents are less likely to hold high-wage jobs than residents of the surrounding counties. In 2023, 57.6% of workers who lived in Harris County held a high-wage job, compared to 63.0% in Fort Bend County and 62.1% in Montgomery County.