Texas' unemployment rate held at 3.4% in August, matching the record low since the state began tracking it in 1976, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
State unemployment fell to 3.4% for the first time in June, a trend economists seized on to describe Texas' economy as "red hot."
Employers in the state added 18,200 jobs in August, led by the education and health services sector, which accounted for 8,800 of those gains. Compared with last August, companies added more than 300,000 jobs to the Texas economy over the year.
"Our businesses in Texas continue to thrive every day in a strong economy, and this three-month historic low unemployment rate is encouraging for all Texans," TWC chairman and commissioner Bryan Daniel said in a statement.
The unemployment rate in Dallas-Fort Worth came in at 3.3%, just slightly below the state's rate in August. Nationally, the jobless rate was 3.8% in August.
Despite Texas' overall strong economic picture, the growth rate in new jobs slowed "significantly" in August, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas senior economist Pia Orrenius said.
Job growth in August was 2.4%, down from 2.6% in July, according to TWC data. The Dallas Fed's forward-looking estimate suggests Texas' annual job growth rate will end the year at 2.3%, compared with 2.4% last year.
"We didn't slow in June and we didn't slow in July _ in fact, it looked like we sped up _ but today we got slower job growth in August, which we've been expecting," Orrenius said.
Tariffs and economic pressures at an international level have created uncertainty in the U.S. and state economies, she said.
