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Austin Employment Standings

Austin is considered to be a city with a strong technological base. In fact, it can legitimately claim to be one of the leading technological centers in the world. While many of these companies have their headquarters situated right in the city, others have made the city home to their regional offices or production plants. This makes the city an attractive place for a prospective job seeker, especially one qualified to work in the technology sector.

It wasn’t always like this, however. The recession which struck America in the early 2000s had a particularly negative impact on Austin , since its reliance on technology made it very vulnerable to various economic forces. Unemployment rates skyrocketed as layoffs and job cuts were the order of the day, with even the city government cutting off 1,000 jobs.

Realizing that a continuance of this trend would affect the city’s economy irretrievably, the city government launched a plan called Opportunity Austin to strengthen existing industries and attract new ones, thereby creating 72,000 new jobs in five years. This has now resulted in a surge in the employment rates and a significant increase in the number of job openings available for candidates in various sectors.

Government statistics indicate that unemployment levels have fallen from 5.8% in 2002 to 4.3% in 2005, with Caldwell County having the highest unemployment rate of 4.9% and Williamson County the lowest at 4.0%. The government, with about 149,000 employees, is the biggest employer in Austin and employs about 22% of the city’s workforce. This is followed by professional and business services, retail trade, education and health services, the hospitality sector, manufacturing, financial activities, construction and mining, wholesale trade, and info rmation.

Statistics also indicated that the average wage for a person employed in any occupation in Austin is $18.66 while the mean salary is $38,810, both of which stand marginally above the national average of $18.21 and $37,870 respectively.

With the local economy picking up, Austin has now become a happy hunting ground for job seekers and employers alike. There are many professional recruiting companies, many of them online ones, which are setting up shop in the hope of tapping into the local talent pool. The city’s labor force is generally high quality, with the percentage of college graduates being about 37%, as compared to the national average of 26.5%. Another factor that works to the city’s advantage is its youthful workforce, with the median age being 32 years. A combination of these factors led to Austin being rated 4 th of the list of Business 2.0’s “Boom Towns” list.

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