Texas created a quarter of all U.S. jobs during the 14-year tenure of Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry,
The Washington Post has confirmed.
The Post analyzed repeated claims by Perry about job creation under his leadership from 2000-14, and said that while the governor's calculation of creating almost one-third of all jobs is an overestimation, the figure is nevertheless close to 25 percent when accounting for population growth.
"Perry's calculation of Texas creating one-third of all American jobs adds up — using his particular formula. But it is not an accurate or comprehensive measure of comparing employment growth on a national scale; his figure comes from the highest end of the calculation possible," the Post said.
"Texas's population grew during this time, including working-age immigrants. A more comprehensive measure that accounts for this population growth shows about a quarter of new employment in America were created in Texas."
The newspaper noted that Texas' employment grew at a higher rate than the national average, or 24.5 percent compared to 7.1 percent.
Texas is already an outlier for being one of the largest states and also has one of the largest immigrant populations, the Post said. Specifically, the immigrant population grew by nearly 20 percent between 2000 and 2013. Most people who entered Texas as immigrants tended to be of working age.
Overall, the Post's Fact Checker gave Perry's 30 percent claim "Two Pinocchios" for accuracy.
"There are plenty of other ways to portray Texas's job growth without using the one-third figure. One-quarter of American jobs is nothing to sneeze at," the paper said.
"Dallas saw the largest job growth among large metropolitan areas in 2014. Texas ranks top 5 among the biggest percentage increases in jobs. Yet Perry continues to use a misleading figure — and thus receives Two Pinocchios."
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