Recession Fuels Texas-California Pipeline

Three words: No income tax.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, analyzed data covering a three-year period that spanned the recession and found that while California sputtered, several Texas metropolitan areas ranked near the top of the country for attracting young college-educated job seekers.

"These were basically down years for most places, but the Texas metros have attracted these highly prized migrants," Frey said.

The upshot, prominent Waco economist Ray Perryman points out, is an unemployment rate of about 6.6 percent, below the national average. And while Texas has regained the same amount of jobs it lost during the recession, California has recovered only about a third.

“The big reason for the migration from California to Texas is quite simple: jobs,” Perryman said in an email.

With the influx of people inevitably come growing pains, usually in the form of crowded schools and increased infrastructure needs. But Texas doesn't seem to be complaining much about that these days.

Instead, they sound confident that they’re state will continue to prosper – and keep luring Californians looking for a better way of life.

Oh, yeah.  And jobs.