The Dallas Morning News reports that, according to Texas Workforce Commission numbers released today, the state added 32,500 non-farm employees to its payrolls last month.   This is the Lone Star State’s fourth consecutive month of increases.

Although the unemployment rate edged up by a tenth of a percent to 8.3 percent, it still remains well below the national average.  A strengthening economy is often signaled by an increase in the rate due to increases in labor force numbers.  Texas’s labor force, for example, grew by 51,000.  That means more people are out looking for jobs though not necessarily yet finding them.

Per the Morning News, Texas added jobs in eight of the eleven employment categories, including education, health care and construction.  Both retail and hospitality services lost jobs.