My wife was just driving through Kentucky and West Virginia to visit some relatives. She is seeing a radically different world there. Job postings and labor shortages are everywhere and most of the people she is visiting are unemployed and don’t do anything.
According to the BLS current population survey (CPS), the unemployment rate for Kentucky fell 0.3 percentage points in April 2021 to 4.7%. The state unemployment rate was 1.4 percentage points lower than the national rate for the month.
So much for your anecdote. Unemployment in Texas is way higher than in Kentucky.
The other piece is this: Population of Texas in 2020: 29,360,759 Population of Kentucky in 2020: 4,477,251
A few days later in either Arkansas or Missouri I was inside a McDonalds offering $200 signing bonus, $100 after 30 days, $100 after another 30 days.
Yesterday I was at the Walmart distribution center in Houston (I'm a truck driver) and they had a banner stretched across a street-visible building for starting warehouse wages of $17.50/hour.
No idea whether any of those jobs get you more than 29 hours/week.
Help wanted signs are everywhere. Metal working. "Labor." Truck stop cashiers. There are signs as well as audio in the truck stops, and they brag about "flexible scheduling." Maybe that means you can schedule around school, or maybe that means "it's slow today, go home."
The big three truck stop chains (TA/Petro, Pilot/FlyingJ, Loves/Speedco) used to always be clean and serviced. Recently that's become spotty, all over the country.