Texas vs. California in the Economy Bowl

Bay Area residents may have to drink another cup of free trade, organic, soy, low-fat, individual drip, micro-lot coffee (don’t forget the rosetta) as a consolation prize when they hear how much better Texas is doing economically.

The cities of Dallas, Houston and Austin are rebounding strongly from the great recession while the Bay Area is still struggling.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area welcomed over 150,000 new residents from April 2010 to July 2011 while the Bay Area only attracted 85,000 newcomers.

Dallas also created 70,000 new jobs in 2011, dwarfing the Bay Area’s 24,000 new jobs.

Part of what is aiding Texas’ growth is the rise in gas and oil prices, which has really increased cash flow in the land of oil and beef.

Economically speaking, the only thing California is doing bigger than Texas is unemployment. California’s unemployment rate for 2011 was 10.9 percent while Texas’ was just 7.6 percent.

However, the news that will most insult the Bay Area’s tech-savvy jobless college grads is that the Bay’s beloved Apple is in the process of doubling their operations in Austin. Apple is expected to create 3,600 new jobs in Texas’ weirdest city over the next decade.