The unemployment rate has been trending downward for roughly two years and currently stands at 7.4 percent. This is far below the national unemployment rate of 8.6 percent. The latest employment figures show that Dallas has added 57,300 jobs on a year-over-year basis, with about half of those gains have been in traditionally office occupied professions. For example, about 16,000 thousand (28 percent) came from Professional and business services and a further 9,000 (16 percent) came from the Finance and Insurance industry.
The manufacturing sector, which has been seeing positive job growth in 2010, was largely flat in 2011. Year-over-year, there are 3,700 more manufacturing jobs for the Metroplex (according to the latest figures available from the Texas Workforce Commission).
Forecasts from the Dallas Fed, Moody’s, Economy.com and REIS all peg Dallas 2012 job growth in the 2.5 - 3% range.