"Texas continues to weather the storm," keeping its unemployment rate below the national rate of 9.1 percent, agency chairman Tom Pauken said in a statement.
So far in 2011, the state has added 92,300 jobs, the agency said.
"That is a trend we hope to continue until all Texans have good jobs earning good wages," Ronny Congleton, the commissioner representing labor, said in the statement.
Jobs in professional and business services grew by 4,300 in May for a total of 53,700 positions added in the past year, the commission said. Mining and logging jobs rose by 3,000 for a total of 32,700 added in the past year, according to the agency.
Manufacturing jobs added during the month totaled 1,900, and construction jobs increased by 1,500, the commission said.
Unemployment rates are adjusted for seasonal trends in hiring and firing, a picture that economists cite as being the most accurate. Without such adjustments, the state's unemployment rate for May was 7.9, and the national figure was 8.7.
Midland continued to show the lowest unemployment rate in the state at 4.6 percent. Amarillo was second at 5.4 percent, and Lubbock was third at 5.9 percent.
The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area had the highest unemployment rate at 11.9 percent, followed closely by neighboring Brownsville-Harlingen at 11.8.
The local rates are not seasonally adjusted.
The preliminary local jobless rates for May, with revised April numbers in parentheses, were:
Abilene 6.6 (6.2)
Amarillo 5.4 (5.2)
Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos 6.7 (6.5)
Beaumont-Port Arthur 11 (10.6)
Brownsville-Harlingen 11.8 (11.4)
College Station-Bryan 6.0 (5.7)
Corpus Christi 7.8 (7.6)
Dallas-Plano-Irving 7.9 (7.7)
El Paso 10.0 (9.7)
Fort Worth-Arlington 7.8 (7.6)
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown 8.2 (8.0)
Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood 7.8 (7.5)
Laredo 8.1 (7.9)
Longview 6.7 (6.6)
Lubbock 5.9 (5.7)
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 11.9 (11.4)
Midland 4.6 (4.4)
Odessa 6.1 (6.1)
San Angelo 6.3 (5.9)
San Antonio-New Braunfels 7.3 (7.0)
Sherman-Denison 8.5 (8.1)
Texarkana 7.4 (7.1)
Tyler 7.4 (7.2)
Victoria 7 (6.8)
Waco 7.3 (7.1)
Wichita Falls 7.1 (6.9)
