When Texas' economy suffers, where do the displaced economic gypsies go then?

[truckin54321]

Very interesting topic......I would add a few qualifiers..while Texas indeed is a CAN Do state, they also have one of the lowest levels of state supported social services, including education. The last one could loom large if many folks are displaced, and newly minted grads have a "you get what you pay for" knowledge.....
Regarding Texas recessions....to a large extent, they are isolated from the rest of the USA, but they go down very hard when they do......Oil and Tech are quite huge contributors in the state now, along with manufacturing in general in the Metroplex, and all three are starting to get hit hard......
Being the real world, and seeing how the other 49 states are averaging close to 8% unem....how many sectors have to get walloped before Texas gets dragged hard into the slowdown?
Again, I feel the newbies will run out of the state just as fast as they ran in, if things get tough, and the lack of a solid, local social network looms large......

[Philip T]

And the Hits Just Keep On Coming . . . .

Welcome to News-Journal! (http://www.news-journal.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/communities/lnj/entries/2009/02/12/production_stoppage_hits_1200.html - broken link)

Production stoppage hits 1,200 workers

By News-Journal staff | Thursday, February 12, 2009, 12:54 AM

U.S. Steel plans to temporarily halt production at its East Texas plant near Lone Star, idling as many as 1,200 union and salaried workers, according to papers filed with the Texas Workforce Commission.

The company’s required legal notice of planned job cuts indicates about 800 production workers and another 400 salaried workers could be affected indefinitely. The notice provided no call-back date for the workers . . . .

[Maabus1999]

Originally Posted by truckin54321

Very interesting topic......I would add a few qualifiers..while Texas indeed is a CAN Do state, they also have one of the lowest levels of state supported social services, including education. The last one could loom large if many folks are displaced, and newly minted grads have a "you get what you pay for" knowledge.....
Regarding Texas recessions....to a large extent, they are isolated from the rest of the USA, but they go down very hard when they do......Oil and Tech are quite huge contributors in the state now, along with manufacturing in general in the Metroplex, and all three are starting to get hit hard......
Being the real world, and seeing how the other 49 states are averaging close to 8% unem....how many sectors have to get walloped before Texas gets dragged hard into the slowdown?
Again, I feel the newbies will run out of the state just as fast as they ran in, if things get tough, and the lack of a solid, local social network looms large......

Saw this post while scanning and searching for economy postings by, and thought I would back your statement up (from a macro level) with a little factoid:

Regional Economic Update, Feb. 2009 - Economic Research - FRB Dallas