The impact of the shale oil boom on South Texas can also be realized from the accompanying
bar chart. The chart shows the annual percent changes of employment and average wage
earnings for the 41 counties in South Texas as well as for Texas as a whole between 2005 and
2014. Growth in total wage earnings is the sum of growth in employment and the average wage
earnings per employee. Except for 2009 and 2010 in the aftermath of the national recession, job
growth was higher in South Texas than the state average during the last decade.
For most years, both employment and wage growth in South Texas tended to stay close to those
of the state as a whole. The obvious exception was wage growth in 2014. Although employment
growth in South Texas was about the same as the statewide average around 3.5 percent, regional
wage at 4 percent was three times higher. This reflects the tight labor ma