The 2004 Super Bowl was played in Houston, Tx on Febraruy 1st, 2004 (here is my earlier post on the 2003 San Diego Super Bowl). The New England Patriots beat the Carolina Panthers 32-29. It was also the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" Super Bowl.
What effect did the 2004 Super Bowl have on Houston area employment? All the data used in the following figures were obtained from the BLS website and come from the Current Employment Statistics database. All data used were not seasonally adjusted (NSA). While monthly state-level data for Texas is available in seasonally adjusted form, the metropolitan-level data was only available in not seasonally adjusted format. I analyze year-ago growth rates to take out as much of the seasonal stuff as possible.
Below is a graph of the year-ago growth rates of total non-farm employment for Houston and, for comparison, the Metroplex (Dallas-Fort Worth area) and the state of Texas (click on the graphs for a larger version). The vertical black line shows when the Super Bowl was played in Houston. The red boxes indicate when the US economy was in recession as defined by the NBER.
The growth of overall employment in the Houston area had little if anything to do with the 2004 Super Bowl. Instead, it was much more closely related to general economic trends affecting the nation as a whole.
It's not uncommon for employment growth to lag the end of recessions. You can see that the growth rate of employment was negative following the end of both the 1990-91 and 2001 recessions. Houston's year-ago growth rate following the 2001 recession did not become positive until after the Super Bowl, in March of 2004. January 2004's employment level was 0.2% lower than January 2003 and Febrary 2004's employment level was 0.1% below that of February 2003. It's unlikely that Houston's overall employment situation was improved by having the Super Bowl.
The following graph shows the NSA employment in Texas as a whole, the Metroplex, and Houston in the Leisure and Hospitality industries.
Here again it's hard to discern any positive relationship between employment growth rates and having the Super Bowl in Houston. Growth rates in Houston and the Metroplex follow each other pretty closely. In addition, growth rates in this industry appear to lag overall economic recoveries (although they have generally been positive for Houston as a whole since late 1993). The growth rate in employment in January 2004 was lower than that in January of 2003 (3.97% vs. 3.66% respectively) and that in February 2004 was lower than that in Febraruy 2003 (3.9% vs. 3.23%). Employment increased in both months of 2004 relative to the year before, but the growth rates were lower. This would be unlikely if the Super Bowl were a jobs generator, especially in the industry most-likely to feel a positive impact in the short term.