Although the rest of the country is considering biking to work in order to avoid paying astronomical gas prices, Houston’s economy is benefiting from all the dollars spent at the pump. With the energy industry providing 48 percent of Houston jobs, more money spent on fuel means more opportunities for those seeking work.
Whereas the rest of the country is experiencing rising unemployment, the city’s jobless rate remains relatively flat at 3.9 percent, a full 1.6 percent lower than the national average. The economic uncertainty that has caused employers throughout America to decrease the size of their staffs hasn’t seemed to touch Houston, where job growth is currently higher than 2 percentage points.