Texas Conservative Lobbyist News: Texas Service Sector Grows in September
The following is a digest of an article originally published at Statesman.com. The Texas Lobby Group is posting this digest as a public service for other Texas lobbyists, Texas government officials, Texas politicians and political consultants, and other interested parties.
As of this September, the Texas service sector has experienced a large increase in business due to a high demand for housing related services and an increase in retail sales. The service sector includes all non government service areas. The service portion of state business accounts for about 59% of all business. Sitting at well over half, it represents a sizeable amount. This information comes directly from a monthly survey from the Dallas Fed. They review the state’s service sector performance, in regards to business and people. Opinion and observation, as well as numbers, are calculated and averaged into a measured index for each factor. If there has been change, it is elaborated on and compared with other organizations.
These interviewed businesses are asked whether prices, employment, general activity, or revenue has changed over the last month. This month’s data was collected September 11-19, and over 245 business executives participated. “About 230 service-providing firms regularly participate in TSSOS, which began collecting data in January 2007. Respondents are broadly representative of service-producing industries in the private sector. TSSOS includes a breakout for respondents in the retail and wholesale sectors, called the Texas Retail Outlook Survey (TROS). TSSOS questionnaires are electronically transmitted to respondents in the middle of each month, and answers are collected over seven business days.”
The service sector employs nearly 7 million workers in the state. Wholesale and retail makes up for about 12% of Texas output, and accounts for about almost two million jobs. Having access to these numbers provides a solid look at how a large part of the Texas economy is doing. These results are measured locally and statewide. When the service industry flourishes, the people working for it tend to do better as well. The recent recession has been taking it’s toll on people’s confidence, even if there are small improvements it seems most have a hard time believing they will be permanent. September of 2012 has shown an increase in the service industry. Hopefully this swing forward will be long lasting and this will be surveyed in the following month’s polls. It’s time to start coming out of this recession.
Read the original article here.