{"id":471611,"date":"2026-10-20T13:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471611\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:34:13","slug":"houston-saw-fewer-layoffs-as-unemployment-dropped-to-4-6-in-september","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/471611\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston saw fewer layoffs as unemployment dropped to 4.6% in September"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"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.\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   style=\"aspect-ratio:4 \/ 3\" class=\"x100 y100 opc bgpc ofcv bgscv block bg-gray200 mnh0px fill\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Baker Hughes&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Arnaldo Larios\/ Courtesy Baker Hughes<\/p>\n<p>Three Houston companies laid off 356 people during the third quarter, or between July and September, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.<\/p>\n<p>That is a big improvement compared with the same period last year, when 2,750 people lost their jobs to layoffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>As of early September, initial unemployment claims \u201care near their lowest level of the year,\u201d according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Meanwhile, Houston\u2019s unemployment rate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twc.texas.gov\/news\/texas-annual-growth-rate-outpaces-nation-labor-force-adds-15800\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dropped from 5% in August to 4.6% in September<\/a>, according to an Oct. 16 report from the Texas Workforce Commission. In September 2025, unemployment stood at 4.8%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The region has been boosted by the construction industry, the fastest-growing major sector this year, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrksolutions.com\/getmedia\/0b9e766e-7757-42ad-9d62-ef5873dd498e\/Houston-Area-Employment-Situation-Report-August-2026\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a new report from Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast<\/a>, Houston\u2019s regional workforce development board. Construction\u00a0has 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.<\/p>\n<p>Still,\u00a0Ahmadizadeh said Houston&#8217;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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/adpemploymentreport.com\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to track compensation across the nation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe strongest pay growth has been concentrated in the construction, manufacturing, and financial activities sectors, and Houston&#8217;s solid performance reflects strong growth across these industries,\u201d ADP lead data scientist Liv Wang said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the biggest layoffs during the third quarter:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MM_onlineOnly\" title=\"CCI Online Only\">LAYOFFS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/business\/article\/houston-layoffs-jobs-2026-22369185.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The 5 companies with the biggest Houston layoffs of 2026 so far<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Baker Hughes<\/p>\n<p>Houston saw its biggest layoff of the third quarter on July 1, when oil field services giant Baker Hughes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/business\/energy\/article\/baker-hughes-lays-147-houston-iran-war-22337718.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported that it would lay off 147 workers<\/a> at its manufacturing and testing site in northwest Harris County. The cuts reflect a \u201cplant closing,\u201d the company said in the layoff notice it provided to the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Showcase Window and Door<\/p>\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/houston\/news\/2026\/07\/23\/showcase-window-and-door-warn-layoffs-closure.html\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Houston Business Journal<\/a>. It did not specify a reason for the cuts in its layoff notice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Airswift<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cproject and asset management and technical advisory services across the upstream energy sector\u201d to its offerings. The deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/houston\/news\/2026\/09\/16\/new-tech-global-staffing-layoffs-airswift-deal.html\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">did not include New Tech Global Staffing<\/a>, the Houston Business Journal reported at the time, resulting in the closure of that office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"uiTextSmall f aic jcc\">Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baker Hughes&#8217;s new corporate headquarters in the Energy Corridor was photographed on Oct.23, 2023. In July 2026, the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-471611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}