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Waco’s jobless rate reached an uncharacteristic double digits last month, contributing to the 1.2 million jobs Texans lost between mid-March and mid-April.
Waco registered a 10.6% unemployment rate for April, the Waco Tribune reported. The 7.8% jump is attributed to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
With Texas having been under a stay-at-home order and coronavirus concerns, a scarcity of tourists dealt a harsh blow to the local leisure and hospitality sector. Recent Texas Workforce Commission figures show that the industry shed 530,200 jobs last month.
Still, Waco fared better than most, economist Ray Perryman told the Tribune.
“In Waco, higher education and health care are cornerstone industries not hit as hard as the energy sector, for example,” he said. “Not surprisingly, the largest drop was in leisure and hospitality.”
A couple of months ago, Texas lost 44,600 jobs, a decline so significant it prompted the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to change its methodology in analyzing trends.
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