The Dallas-Fort Worth regional economy continues to add new jobs and industries, even as the outlook grows more uncertain for the national labor market.
Against a backdrop of surging layoffs in February, the U.S. economy created 151,000 jobs during the month — a respectable showing but weaker than most consensus estimates — while the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%. Tariffs and recent moves to shrink the size of the federal government have weighed on markets and darkened the near-term economic outlook.
Yet, Texas in general — and the D-FW region in particular — is demonstrating it is an island of relative calm as storm clouds gather elsewhere. Big employers are moving into the neighborhood, while others such as Sally Beauty are shifting from one North Texas city to another, bringing jobs in their wake.
Gov. Greg Abbott said this week that Texas has added over 300 corporate headquarters since 2015, “making our state the headquarters of headquarters.”
The overall regional unemployment rate sits at 3.5%, well below the national average, and a host of industries are generating jobs as new employers move into the neighborhood.
Last month, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas forecast that the Lone Star State will create 225,000 jobs in 2025, with employment sitting at 14.4 million at year’s end.
Data centers and related manufacturing activity are greasing the wheels of regional growth, with an increasingly international flavor. Earlier this week, German industrial giant Siemens unveiled a new facility in Fort Worth as part of a $285 million expansion in Texas and California.
Meanwhile, New Delhi-based Tech Mahindra cut the ribbon on a new plant in Plano that will deepen the reach of a global company with over 150,000 employees across 90 countries.
“We’re excited to contribute to the economic and technological growth of North Texas while delivering transformative solutions for our global customers,” Lakshmanan Chidambaram, president and head of Tech Mahindra’s Americas Leadership Council, told The Dallas Morning News in a statement.
“As a Dallas resident of several years, I am incredibly proud to see Tech Mahindra deepen its roots in North Texas.”
Don’t forget finance
While construction, manufacturing and transportation are among the largest job creators in the region, according to the latest available Bureau of Labor Statistics data, financial services and information technology are flexing their muscles as drivers of regional growth.
In recent months, the D-FW area has seen an influx from boldface investment banking names like Bank of New York, whose wealth management arm has taken up shop in Old Parkland, and Goldman Sachs, which is constructing a new campus in the area.
Underscoring how North Texas is emerging as a financial powerhouse, the bulge-bracket investment bank created a stir this week when it told some of its employees they needed to move to either Dallas or Salt Lake City — or find somewhere else to work.
Separately, Gibraltar Capital Management, a Tulsa-based investment firm, recently acquired Miller Equity Capital Advisors, which is headquartered in Dallas.
They’ll soon be joined by the New York Stock Exchange, which last month announced it was reincorporating its Chicago operations in Dallas as part of a bid to compete with the upstart Texas Stock Exchange.
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