Texas

A row of one- and two-story brick shopfronts along a wide main street under a blue sky with scattered clouds, with a diner, a massage studio and other small businesses and a parked SUV.

Americans Have Filed 13 Per Cent More Business Applications This Year. Filings From Firms Planning to Pay Wages Fell Everywhere but Oklahoma.

Americans filed 5.23 million applications for new business tax IDs in the first ten months of 2026, 13.0 per cent more than a year earlier, according to Census Bureau data released on 12 November 2026. Applications that named a date for paying wages fell 14.2 per cent. By our count they fell in every state and the District of Columbia except Oklahoma.

By Margaret Holloway 2 hours ago

A black pumpjack on a concrete pad in flat, dry scrubland under a clear blue sky, with more pumpjacks and power lines on the horizon.

The Numbers

Oil Averaged $102 a Barrel in October. U.S. Oil and Gas Producers Employed 2,300 Fewer People Than in February, the Fewest Since 2022.

West Texas crude averaged $102.07 a barrel in October 2026, up from $64.51 in February, but employment at U.S. oil and gas extraction companies fell to 113,900 from 116,200, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Oilfield support jobs rose by about 1,400. The October job figures are preliminary.

By Thomas Gutierrez 3 hours ago

An industrial plant of stacks, pipework and two burning flares stretches along the far bank of a wide grey channel, with a small tugboat on the water and a wooden railing in the foreground.

Business

Texas and Louisiana Account for 46 Per Cent of This Year's $230 Billion Rise in U.S. Exports

U.S. goods exports in the first nine months of 2026 were $1.85 trillion, $230 billion or 14.2 per cent more than a year earlier, by our sum of Census Bureau state data. Texas and Louisiana supplied $105 billion of the increase. Exports fell in ten states, led by Alabama.

By Margaret Holloway 3 hours ago

A tall land drilling rig with equipment and soil piles at its base stands in a bare ploughed field under heavy grey clouds.

The Numbers

Oil Averaged $96 in the Spring. The Economies of America's Oil States Shrank.

In the second quarter, when West Texas crude averaged $95.65 a barrel, the current-dollar economies of Alaska, New Mexico, Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming and West Virginia grew faster than any others. Measured in real terms, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota shrank, along with Kansas and Nebraska. Real mining output fell in every big energy state. The oil price raised the value of what they produced, not the amount.

By Thomas Gutierrez October 5, 2026

Texas

Tagged stories

Americans Have Filed 13 Per Cent More Business Applications This Year. Filings From Firms Planning to Pay Wages Fell Everywhere but Oklahoma.

Oil Averaged $102 a Barrel in October. U.S. Oil and Gas Producers Employed 2,300 Fewer People Than in February, the Fewest Since 2022.

Texas and Louisiana Account for 46 Per Cent of This Year's $230 Billion Rise in U.S. Exports

Oil Averaged $96 in the Spring. The Economies of America's Oil States Shrank.