Dallas Fed: About a quarter of Texas businesses impacted by recent storms

News Releases

August 27, 2024

DALLAS-Hurricane Beryl and other storms that hit Texas recently impacted the operations of roughly a quarter of Texas manufacturers and services businesses, according to executives responding to a survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

From Aug. 13-21, the Dallas Fed asked a series of special questions on expected demand, employment and impacts from recent storms in the Texas Business Outlook Surveys and heard back from 341 business executives. Key takeaways:

• Demand expectations remained quite positive, though optimism has waned somewhat. Forty-seven percent of firms expected demand for their goods and/or services to increase over the next six months, and 23 percent expected a decrease. Demand optimism is highest among manufacturers and lowest among retailers.
• The share of firms saying they are understaffed continues to decline, now at 46 percent, down from 63 percent in fall 2022. Fifteen percent of firms say they are overstaffed, but very few are laying off workers.
• About a quarter of firms experienced a negative impact from the storms over the past few months. The most widespread impact was seen in July, largely due to Hurricane Beryl, and the most common storm effects were reduced revenue/production, extended loss of power and worker absenteeism. Ten to fifteen percent of all surveyed firms cited these disruptions in July.

Some manufacturing weakness continues

"The Texas manufacturing sector posted another month of little to no growth in August, and demand weakness continued," said Emily Kerr, senior business economist at the Dallas Fed. "Employment levels were stable overall. Outlooks softened, though expectations for future activity remained positive."

Key takeaways from this month's Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey:

• The production index inched up three points to 1.6, with the low reading signaling little growth in output from July.
• The new orders index climbed nine points to -4.2.
• Labor market measures suggested flat employment and slightly shorter workweeks.
• Moderate upward pressure on prices and wages continued in August.
• The general business activity index rose eight points to -9.7, and the company outlook index rose nine points to -9.6.

For more information visit DallasFed.org.

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Media contact:
Jon Prior
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Phone: 214-922-6857
Email: [email protected]

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