Look closer at TX economy. It sucks.

There can be no doubt that Gov. Goodhair Rick Perry is another vapid corporate stooge running Texas. Perry actually appointed an Enron executive to the state Public Utilities Commission in exchange for a campaign donation of $25,000. 

But what's important about Texas is that shows us the tragic outcome of the corporate economic vision: lousy education, inadequate health care, shitty jobs. And just wait for that Nafta highway to wreak more damage on our country.

Here are a few facts about the Texas economy: The biggest industry in Texas is government. Texas jobs are crappy. And Texas ranks dead last in job creation.

This, from Economic Populist:

Texas is being declared an economic miracle. Yet anyone can quickly calculate a few facts on Texas. Guess which the largest industry in Texas was in 2010? Government. I kid you not, from the BEA:

In 2010, the largest industry in Texas was government. This industry accounted for 11.8 percent of Texas GDP and had 1.7 percent real growth. The second largest industry was mining, which accounted for 9.5 percent of Texas GDP and had 0.8 percent real growth...

Since January 2010 to June 2011, Texas has gained 505,100 jobs. Nationally, jobs gained are 1,792,000. Texas has gained 28.19% of the total jobs created. Seems like a lot, yet in determining what type of jobs we get, they are mainly crappy jobs. Trade, transportation and Utilities includes Retail trade, which are as a whole, low paying service type of jobs.

Writes the New York Times:

...if Mr. Perry were to win the nomination, he would face critics, among them Democrats, who have long complained that the state’s economic health came at a steep price: a long-term hollowing out of its prospects because of deep cuts to education spending, low rates of investment in research and development, and a disparity in the job market that confines many blacks and Hispanics to minimum-wage jobs without health insurance.

And ThinkProgress reports that Texas is dead last in job creation if you account for population growth. Writes ThinkProgress,

While over 126,000 net jobs were created in Texas over the last two and a half years, the labor force expanded by over 437,000, meaning that overall Texas has added unemployed workers at a rate much faster than it has created jobs. And although states like Michigan have lost jobs (29,200 since February 2009), the state’s labor force has shrunk by over 185,000 since then. As a result, while there are fewer jobs, there are significantly less workers looking for them

ThinkProgress also notes that jobs grew faster in Massachusetts than Texas between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than in Texas.

Meybe Gov. Goodhair should keep his yap shut about the Texas economy.