- Home
- News
- Features
- Topics
- Labor
- Management
- Opinions/Blogs
- Tools & Resources
GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry points to job growth in Texas during the current economic downturn as one of his primary accomplishments.
But an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) data collected by the Census Bureau shows that immigrants, legal and illegal, have been the primary beneficiaries of job growth in Texas since 2007, taking 81% of the jobs created even though native-born Americans accounted for the majority of working-age population (age 16 to 65) growth, according to to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies. Among the study’s other findings:
The study pointed out that:
(M)any immigrants are more educated. When we look at the number of newly-arrived immigrants in Texas, we find that 43.2 percent (97,000) of those that took a job in Texas had at least some college. If we look at the net gain in employment among more educated immigrants, rather than new arrivals, the growth was 53,000, which means that more-educated workers accounted for one-third of the net growth in immigrant employment. Thus it would a mistake to assume that immigrants are only competing for jobs at the bottom end of the labor market.
From ProPublica:
What did Perry actually do during his decade-long stint as Texas governor? One of Perry’s most-touted accomplishments as governor has been job creation. In his presidential announcement speech, he said:
Since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40% of all of the new jobs created in America. Now think about that. We’re home to less than 10% of the population in America, but 40% of all the new jobs were created in that state.
But it’s unclear to what extent Perry’s policy decisions were responsible for creating those jobs. The Austin American-Statesman lays out all the factors that went into Texas’ economic success over the past few years. Yahoo! News took a closer look at jobs data and found holes in Perry’s narrative that limited regulation of business was the major driver of Texas’ economic growth. Yahoo! and others have noted that part of the growth was driven by the state and local governments, which have actually added many jobs.
The National Journal has an overview of Perry’s performance on the economy, education and health insurance, accompanied by some useful charts. The Journal found that Texas still has a high poverty rate, despite the strong jobs figures, and that the state’s high-school graduation rates are below the national average. The contributors to Ezra Klein’s blog put together a series of critical posts evaluating Perry’s record on balancing the budget, creating jobs, Medicaid and the environment. Perry’s PolitiFact report card shows a mixed record when it comes to making accurate statements.