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Policy-makers look to Texas for job creation ideas

Posted on August 29th, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

Employers, policy wonks and lawmakers nationwide have been grappling with how to restart the American economy and get unemployed and temporary workers back in the office. In this quest, many have looked to Texas as a model.

Since 2009, half of all net jobs in the United States were created in Texas, a state that prides itself on business-friendly practices such as low taxes and limited regulation, the New York Times explains. However, growth in the private sector has been coupled with high unemployment and a greater reliance on minimum wage workers, giving human resources administration somewhat of a headache.

Still, analysts cannot ignore the fact that since 2001, Texas has added more than 825,400 private sector jobs despite a nationwide net loss in the sector during that timespan, the source reports.

"We're doing a good job of poaching jobs from other high-tax, high-regulatory states," Tim Pauken, chairmen of the Texas Workforce Commission, told the Times. "But ultimately it's a zero-sum game if the nation at large is losing jobs to other nations."

Texas Governor Rick Perry has made his job creation record a central tenet of his run for the Republican presidential nomination, despite the state boasting a debt of more than $20 billion.

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