Coordinated Border Infrastructure Program

Employment Statistics for Laredo, Texas, and the USA

Notes:

Civilian Employment includes government employees other than military personnel but not full time agriculture employees.
Civilian Labor Force does not include institutional population (e.g., incarcerated persons).
Laredo refers to the Laredo Statistical Metropolitan Area
The August to August comparison is done for two reasons;
1. Laredo has some annual systemic variations with June to July and November to February having substantially higher labor force participation for reasons having to do with seasonal markets;
2. Relatively short term comparisons of the economy before and after the Sept 11, 2001 terror attacks might not be statistically meaningful.
With respect to judging the extent to which the project is responsible for the favorable economic growth, it should be noted that the Laredo area job increase from August 1999 to August 2001 actually exceeded the Laredo job increase between August 1997 and August 1999. This, despite the fact that the National job increase between August 1999 and August 2001 was only about half the National job increase between August 1997 and August 1999 period. It was not possible to compare Laredo to an MSA without significant new highway construction, which was similarly sized, and on the Mexican border. Thus, there is no way to definitively establish a quantitative cause and effect (i.e., new bridge created X new jobs)