By G. SCOTT THOMAS
sthomas@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1618

It has been a shaky recovery, to be sure, yet all but six states added jobs during the past 12 months.

Texas, as usual, is No. 1 in the latest seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Lone Star State picked up 269,500 jobs between July 2010 and the same month this year.

But Texas is not alone in registering a broad upswing. Two other states posted six-figure gains: California (up 189,600 jobs in 12 months) and New York (up 106,600). An additional 13 states added at least 25,000 jobs during the past year.

Only six of the 50 states have suffered employment declines since July 2010, with the worst drops occurring in Indiana (down 28,300 jobs) and Georgia (down 24,900).

On Numbers also generated monthly breakdowns for the past year, counting the number of monthly gains or losses for each state (as well as the number of even, or unchanged, months).

Texas and North Dakota fared the best, registering 11 employment gains in 12 months. Georgia and Indiana were the worst, with nine month-to-month declines.

Complete figures for all 50 states and the District of Columbia (as well as charts for the other items below) can be accessed at On Numbers' website: http://tinyurl.com/on-numbers.

33 states add jobs in expansion cycle

Some economists disagree, but the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - the official arbiter of such things - has determined that the economy began to grow again after June 2009.

The results of this expansion cycle have been uneven. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have added jobs since the midpoint of 2009, but 17 states have suffered additional job losses.

These were the top and bottom states in raw nonfarm employment growth during each cycle:

Expansion 1 (March 1991-March 2001): Texas (up 2.38 million jobs) and District of Columbia (down 29,800)

Contraction 1 (March 2001-Nov. 2001): District of Columbia (up 6,000 jobs) and California (down 255,700)

Expansion 2 (Nov. 2001-Dec. 2007): Texas (up 1.08 million jobs) and Michigan (down 255,800)

Contraction 2 (Dec. 2007-June 2009): North Dakota (up 6,200 jobs) and California (down 1.12 million)

Expansion 3 (June 2009-July 2011): Texas (up 328,000 jobs) and Georgia (down 65,900)

Short-term construction numbers are brighter

A story in last week's edition of Business First told the unhappy story of America's construction slowdown since 2005. This week's update takes a shorter - and more positive - look at the same problem.

On Numbers studied recent construction activity in 170 major markets, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau. Every single one of those metros, as reported a week ago, experienced a decline between 2005 and 2010.

But the picture is a bit sunnier when confined to 2009-10, the most recent period for which official construction data are available.

Nearly 60 percent of the major markets - 101, to be precise - registered one-year gains in construction activity. San Jose led the way with a 282 percent leap. A total of 1,094 privately owned housing units were authorized in the San Jose area in 2009, jumping to 4,179 in 2010.

Five other markets posted upswings of at least 100 percent: Lansing, Mich.; Fort Collins, Colo.; Detroit; Montgomery, Ala.; and New Haven, Conn.

A housing unit, as defined by the Census Bureau, is any self-contained home, regardless of size. A building with 100 apartments, for example, would count as 100 units.

Mobile, Ala., suffered the biggest one-year drop of any market, falling 61.1 percent from 2,635 units in 2009 to 1,026 units in 2010.

Houston, Dallas are hottest housing markets

New York City may be the nation's largest metropolitan area in terms of population, but it can't compete with Houston when it comes to residential construction activity.

The collective value of all private housing projects authorized in the Houston area last year was $4.17 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's easily the highest total posted by any of the nation's 366 metros.

Dallas holds second place with $3.87 billion of new, privately owned housing units being authorized in 2010, followed by New York with $3.05 billion. All figures encompass central cities and their suburbs.

Rounding out the top five in residential construction valuation are Los Angeles at $2.38 billion and Washington at $2.10 billion.

The total value of all building permits issued in the 366 metros last year was $88.46 billion. Twenty metros topped $1 billion in residential construction valuation, and another 24 were between $500 million and $1 billion.