Ten years ago this month, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The end result was a deepening of financial troubles plaguing the United States. By the end of 2009, the U.S. had lost 8.6 million jobs and it took more than six years to get those jobs back.

Yet, according to economist Ray Perryman, Texas was one of the few regions that weathered the Great Recession fairly well. Though the Lone Star State lost its share of jobs — 430,000 between September 2008-January 2010 — it came out of the financial doldrums much quicker, and has grown almost 23% since the turnaround began in October 2010.

Perryman indicated that Texans can thank the energy sector for its relatively mild recession. He noted that crude oil prices topped $140 a barrel during the summer of 2008. Also benefiting the economy were technology industries. And finally, Texas escaped the real estate bubble — “Texas lenders still remember well the real estate problem in the 1980s,” Perryman said.

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