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S. economy help lift economic growth in the region, according to a forecast released Wednesday. The Greater Houston Partnership, a business-financed economic development group, projects the Houston metropolitan area will add about 71,000 new jobs next year, slightly above a typical good year, when 60,000 to 65,000 jobs are created. Employment will grow across all sectors next year, led by health care, which is expected to add 9,000 jobs, construction, forecast to add 8,900 jobs, and administrative services, projected to add 7,600 jobs, according to the Greater Houston Partnership. Houston is predicted to end 2019 with 3.2 million payroll jobs, a net increase of more than 600,000 jobs over the past 10 years. Only New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas will have created more jobs over the same period, according to the Partnership. “It’s time to declare victory,” said Patrick Jankowski, an economist and the partnership’s senior vice president of research, during a presentation to business leaders. “The economy is in the best shape it’s been since 2013 and 2014.” Jankowski said the Houston region has emerged from a collapse in oil prices that began in late 2014 and resulted the worst oil bust in a generation. One in four energy jobs in the region was lost. In the past, such a blow to the energy sector would have devastated the Houston economy, Jankowski said, but this time Houston held up well due in large part to a reduced reliance on oil as its prime economic driver. The annual forecast expects oil prices to continue ...