Smith County Ranked No. 8 in Nation in Job Growth By BRIAN PEARSON, Business Editor   |   Apr 19, 2009

Paul Ahlstrom and his wife experienced love at first sight when they came from Provo, Utah, for a recent visit to the Tyler area.

“We came here and it was in the 70s and beautiful,” Ahlstrom said. “In Provo it was in the 20s with 2 feet of snow. I’m not a big fan of the cold.”

Ahlstrom immediately began a job search here. He moved his family and started his new job last month as clinical manager for trauma at East Texas Medical Center’s intensive care unit.

“Tyler is a place where there are opportunities, and it still has that small-town feel,” said Ahlstrom, 49, who moved here with his wife, Isabel, and two children, Claudia, 13, and Daphne, 7.

Ahlstrom underscores a recent job-market trend that vaulted Smith County into national prominence last year when it came to job growth.

Smith County ranked eighth nationwide when it came to employment growth over a yearlong period, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report released this past week.

The number of Smith County jobs grew 2.4 percent from September 2007 to September 2008, according to the report.

Smith County was among 20 of the state’s 24 large counties to see jumps in employment levels for that time period. Large counties were defined as those having at least 75,000 residents employed.

Tom Mullins, president and CEO of the Tyler Economic Development Council, said the energy industry created many of the new Smith County jobs during those 12 months.

“The price of gas was way up there. The price of oil was way up there,” Mullins said.

Although some of those jobs have been lost during the economic downturn, the medical community has balanced that with the creation of 1,240 jobs in the past year, he said.

He added that jobs also have been created in the retail, government, finance and education sectors.

Potter County led Texas and ranked No. 2 nationwide with a job gain of 3.1 percent, followed by Montgomery County at 3 percent.

Only three large Texas counties — Cameron, Webb and Jefferson — saw employment shrinkage. McLennan County data did not meet disclosure requirements and was not included in the report.

Texas employment increased 1.4 percent. Nationwide, employment slipped 0.8 percent for the 12-month period, with 207 of the 334 large counties showing declines.

Yakima, Wash., saw the biggest growth at 3.2 percent, while the economically devastated Elkhart County, Ind., saw the biggest job loss at 10.8 percent.

As far as wages, the average weekly pay in Smith County was $743, ranked only 214 nationwide. However, the wage marked a 4.2 percent increase from the previous year, the 46th highest jump nationwide and tied with Lubbock County for the greatest in Texas. Gregg County, which was not part of the 334 large counties studied, had an average weekly wage of $733.

The highest weekly pay went to Harris County residents, pulling in an average $1,050, followed by Dallas at $1,025. Montgomery saw the state’s fastest average weekly wage increase, increasing 5.5 percent.

The average statewide wage was $850, 15th highest nationwide and a 2.9 percent increase from the previous year.

Nationwide, the average weekly wage rose 2.8 percent to $841. New York, N.Y., had the highest at $1,552, while Horry, S.C., had the lowest at $580.

Meanwhile, the Tyler area’s employment rate has been stable in recent months, according to Texas Workforce Commission figures released Friday.

Employment dipped slightly to 93.3 percent in March from 93.4 percent the previous month, mirroring the statewide figures. The nation’s employment rate slid to 91 percent in March, down from 91.1 percent the previous month.

However, employment in the Tyler area is down dramatically from March 2008, when it stood at 95.5 percent.

“The Texas unemployment rate remained well below that of the nation, although Texas suffered a net loss of jobs in March,” Tom Pauken, workforce commission chairman, said in a statement Friday. “While the national recession continues to have an impact, TWC is focused on helping Texans find employment and weather these challenging economic times.”

Rebecca Berkley, spokeswoman for ETMC, said job creation in the Tyler medical community will continue later this year with the opening of a new hospital floor and 72 beds.

ETMC expansion will create 100 new nursing jobs alone, she said, adding that the hospital is on a nationwide recruiting hunt to fill those positions.

“We’re recruiting all over the place,” Ms. Berkley said.