Austin Continues to Receive Rave Reviews

In our ongoing series of Blog entries that focus on Austin's buoyant and resilient economy we would like to include the following two articles as prime examples of how strong things are here in Central Texas. Enjoy!

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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Austin recession-proof?

Austin Business Journal

Austin was named third on the Forbes.com list of the top 10 "Recession-Proof Cities" in the United States. To create the list, the magazine looked at the 50 largest U.S. metros, examining key measures, such as unemployment data, non-farm related job growth, median home prices and data from a 2007 report, "U.S. Metro Economies: The Mortgage Crisis" by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

At number three, Austin was right behind San Antonio, which grabbed the second spot thanks to solid employment figures and affordable home prices that continue to rise. Oklahoma City took the No. 1 spot because of its strong housing market and solid growth in agriculture, energy and manufacturing. For its part, Austin was lauded for being a hip town with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

Forbes magazine's list of recession-proof cities also included: Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, N.C., Raleigh, N.C., Salt Lake City, San Jose, Calif. and Seattle.

Forbes says that Texas cities such as San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have benefitted from historically lower home prices, land availability and 'little zoning'.
All four Texas cities boast falling unemployment rates, according to Forbes, with Austin dropping from 3.8 percent to 3.6 percent.

http://www.forbes.com/realestate/2008/04/29/cities-recession-places-forbeslife-cx_jz_0429realestate.html


Friday, May 16, 2008

Austin keeps truckin' on job creation

Austin Business Journal

Providing more evidence of Austin's economic resilience, the region added 4,100 jobs last month with big gains in sectors such as hospitality and professional and business services. The April additions included 900 new positions each in the government and leisure/hospitality sectors. Professional/business services added 500 jobs as did retail trade, according to the latest figures from the Texas Workforce Commission.

In the last year, Austin has gained 20,100 jobs for an annual growth rate of 2.7 percent. Retail trade added 2,900 jobs since April 2007; professional/business services added 5,700 positions, leisure and hospitality grew by 2,900 and government increased by 3,700 jobs. The largest job declines came in the manufacturing sector, which saw a year-over-year drop of 2,100 positions.
The unemployment rate in the Austin-Round Rock area stood at 3.3 percent in April, down from 3.2 percent a year earlier. That remains better than the Texas unemployment rate at 3.9 percent and the national rate at 4.8 percent.

Texas employers added a total of 15,400 jobs in April for a 12-month job increase of 262,000 positions since April 2007.