Baker Hughes’s new corporate headquarters in the Energy Corridor was photographed on Oct.23, 2023. In July 2026, the oil field services giant announced that it would lay off 147 workers at its manufacturing and testing site in northwest Harris County.
Arnaldo Larios/ Courtesy Baker Hughes
Three Houston companies laid off 356 people during the third quarter, or between July and September, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
That is a big improvement compared with the same period last year, when 2,750 people lost their jobs to layoffs.
During the first nine months of the year overall, about 3,000 layoffs have been reported in the Houston region, compared with about 5,200 during the same period last year.
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As of early September, initial unemployment claims “are near their lowest level of the year,” according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Meanwhile, Houston’s unemployment rate dropped from 5% in August to 4.6% in September, according to an Oct. 16 report from the Texas Workforce Commission. In September 2025, unemployment stood at 4.8%.
The region has been boosted by the construction industry, the fastest-growing major sector this year, according to a new report from Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast, Houston’s regional workforce development board. Construction has added 13,800 jobs since September 2025, a gain of 5.4%, according to economist and principal data analyst Mohammad Ahmadizadeh, although the sector lost about 400 jobs last month.
Still, Ahmadizadeh said Houston’s labor market weakened in September, with the leisure and hospitality sector losing 7,300 jobs and the professional and business services sector losing 3,900 jobs.
Workers in the Houston metro area also saw their gross pay increase 5% between September 2025 and September 2026, the 12th-fastest growth rate among 56 metros tracked, according to payroll company ADP, which uses data from the businesses it works with to track compensation across the nation.
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“The strongest pay growth has been concentrated in the construction, manufacturing, and financial activities sectors, and Houston’s solid performance reflects strong growth across these industries,” ADP lead data scientist Liv Wang said in an email.
Here are the biggest layoffs during the third quarter:
LAYOFFS: The 5 companies with the biggest Houston layoffs of 2026 so far
Baker Hughes
Houston saw its biggest layoff of the third quarter on July 1, when oil field services giant Baker Hughes reported that it would lay off 147 workers at its manufacturing and testing site in northwest Harris County. The cuts reflect a “plant closing,” the company said in the layoff notice it provided to the state.
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Showcase Window and Door
In July, manufacturer Showcase Window and Door Co. announced that it would lay off 61 workers and close its manufacturing plant in Missouri City. The company, which was founded in Houston in 1994, was acquired by custom window and door maker OpenView Products in 2020 and began manufacturing in Missouri City in 2022, according to the Houston Business Journal. It did not specify a reason for the cuts in its layoff notice.
Airswift
In September, recruitment company Airswift eliminated 121 jobs after acquiring several divisions of New Tech Global, a consultancy focused on the oil and gas industry. At the time, Airswift said the acquisition would allow the company to add “project and asset management and technical advisory services across the upstream energy sector” to its offerings. The deal did not include New Tech Global Staffing, the Houston Business Journal reported at the time, resulting in the closure of that office.
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