The chart above shows a most amazing economic phenomenon: Since December 2007 when the Great Recession started, Texas civilian employment has increased by 12.4% and by more than 1.36 million jobs, from just over 11 million jobs in December 2007 to 12.37 million in October of this year (see blue line in chart). In contrast, civilian employment in the other 49 states without Texas is still 0.26% and more than 350,000 jobs below the December 2007 level (see red line in chart) — there were 134.9 million non-Texas jobs in October vs. 135.26 million in December 2007.

It’s also important to note that while job growth in Texas slowed considerably in 2008 and 2009 due to the recession, the level of civilian employment in Texas never fell below its pre-recessionary, December 2007 level. Also, while Texas was able to actually increase jobs slightly even during the depths of the recession in 2008 and 2009, the US labor market minus Texas experienced a stunning loss of 8.374 million jobs (a percentage drop of 6.2%) in the two year period between December 2007 and December 2009.

In another job-related milestone for Texas, the BLS reported today that annual payroll employment in Texas increased in October by more than 400,000 jobs from a year ago for the third straight month, and established a new all-time state record for job growth over a 12-month period with a 421,900 gain from October 2013. Over the last year, Texas has added more than 1,600 new jobs every business day – a hiring rate of more than 200 jobs every hour! Also, Texas’s annual job gain of 421,900 through October represented 16% of the country’s 2.643 million increase in nonfarm payroll employment over that period, even though Texas’s population is only 8.4% of the US total. In percentage terms, Texas payrolls increased by 3.74% over the last 12 months, almost double the 1.93% growth in US payroll employment.

The chart and data tell a powerful and remarkable story of job creation in the Lone Star State of more than 1.36 million new jobs added since the start of the Great Recession, compared to a net deficit of 354,000 jobs for the other 49 states combined. Much of the economic success of Texas in recent years that has fueled job creation in the state is a direct result of the shale oil and gas boom taking place in areas like the Permian Basin in west Texas (1.8 million barrels of oil per day) and the Eagle Ford in south central Texas (1.6 million barrels per day). Texas is now producing almost 37% of America’s total crude oil production, and as a separate country would be the world’s 8th largest oil-producer. Further, Texas has done a great job of attracting businesses like Toyota because of the state’s “employer-friendly combination of low taxes, fair courts, smart regulations and world-class workforce.”

Bottom Line: The country, the president, and all of us individually owe a huge debt of gratitude to the state of Texas and to the oil and gas industry for helping support the US economy during and after the Great Recession. Without the energy-driven economic stimulus from the fracking revolution, and without the gusher of jobs in the state of Texas, there’s no question that the Great Recession would have been much worse and lasted much longer, and the jobs picture today would be much bleaker. The chart above helps to illustrate how important the state of “Saudi Texas” is to the US labor market and economy. Thanks largely to the Lone Star State, the US has finally gained back all of the jobs lost during the Great Recession – September and October this year have been the only two months since 2007 that civilian employment in the US surpassed the pre-recession jobs peak. God Bless Texas.