The Gardner Group Blog

Texas employee confidence in the economy remained steady in September despite the recent financial crisis, according to the monthly Spherion Employment Report.

Thirty-seven percent of Texas workers said they believed the job market was steady, up from 25 percent in August.

The report also found that fewer workers - 28 percent - responded that they were going to look for jobs over the next year, compared with 39 percent in August.

Seventy-two percent of workers thought their companies were doing well, up from 69 percent the previous month.

"With all of the news surrounding the financial crisis, the latest national job numbers, and the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, it is certainly a surprise to see that the Employee Confidence Index is continuing to rise," said Kim Lockhart, regional vice president for Spherion in Texas.

"Even though the Texas unemployment rate is consistently lower than the national level, the state is certainly feeling the effects of the economic slowdown. There seems to be a lot of hesitation being seen by both job seekers and employers and I don't see this fading as we enter the fourth quarter.

"Despite all this, the Texas job market continues to add jobs while many other parts of the country are losing them. The state job market remains strong, particularly in education, accounting and energy-related industries."

From the Austin Business Journal