Texas Roughnecks Enduring Lockdowns Better Than Bartenders

Hotel, restaurant and movie theater jobs in Texas disappeared at more than three times the rate of oilfield work as the Covid-19 outbreak began paralyzing economic activity, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector slumped by 37.2%, compared to an 11.7% reduction in the oil and natural gas sector during the two-month period ending in April, the Dallas Fed said in a report on Thursday.

Oil Beats Leisure

Texas hospitality jobs disappeared much faster than of oilfield work

Source: Dallas Federal Reserve

The Lone Star states financial and government sectors were least affected, with seasonally-adjusted job losses of 1.4% and 1.6%, respectively. Statewide unemployment reached 12.8% during the two-month span, below the national average of 14.7%, the report said.

Read More: Feds Kaplan Says U.S. Recovery Faces Upside and Downside Risks

Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan earlier this week said the U.S. economy probably contracts by as much as 5% this year and that nationwide unemployment will remain elevated through the end of 2021.

— With assistance by Catarina Saraiva, and Alexandre Tanzi