Texas led country in new jobs in 2022 as state’s unemployment rate fell below 4%

Downtown Austin in September. (Credit: Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune)

Texas led the country in new nonfarm jobs last year, according to a Tuesday report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The state’s employers added 650,100 nonfarm payroll jobs — a 5% jump — between December 2021 and December 2022, according to the report. This rise surpassed that of California and Florida, which added 621,400 and 440,000 jobs, respectively. In total, 13.7 million Texans were in nonfarm jobs at the end of 2022 compared to about 13 million at the end of 2021.