Austin, Texas - Honored by
Forbes Magazine
Forbes magazine recently recognized Austin, Texas as The Best Place for Business and Careers in all of the United States. Is this recognition justified by economic indicators?
Employers who want to relocate to the city of Austin, Texas, should be aware of the Opportunity Austin effort that was initiated by the Austin Chamber of Commerce and is being implemented by the Economic Development Division of that Chamber of Commerce. Under the Opportunity Austin program, 72,000 new jobs are to be produced in the five years since it was launched in September 2003. Though Opportunity Austin will require an investment of around $11 million to succeed (with much of that coming from private sources), the aggregate rise in payroll is expected to reach $2.9 billion at the end of this five year plan.
To complement Opportunity Austin, the Austin Chamber of Commerce also unveiled its other initiative called Portfolio Austin – A Strategy for Growth in 2004 which aspired to help regional companies thrive in Austin (since the Chamber understood that around 80% of new employment would be produced by such companies.)
Employment indicators show that unemployment is definitely falling, as of July 2007. In July 2006, the unemployment rate stood at 4.6% with a total of 38,144 Austin MSA residents unemployed at that time. A year later, in July 2007, the unemployment rate for Austin MSA fell to 4.0% with a total of 33,741 residents unemployed.
The labor force as of July 2006 was made up of 836,417 Austin MSA residents all in all, with 798,273 gainfully employed at that time. A year later, as of July 2007, the labor force was made up of 851,935 Austin MSA residents with 818,194 fully employed by then.
Even at the state level, the numbers of unemployed people is also shrinking. The state of Texas, on the other hand, showed an unemployment rate as of July 2006 of 5.4% with a total of 626,199 state residents unemployed. The state then saw its unemployment rate as of July 2007 fall to 4.8% with just 553,636 state residents unemployed.
The labor force in Texas as of July 2006 stood at 11,585,984 total members with 10,959,785 state residents employed. By July 2007, the labor force of the state totaled 11,643,024 members with 11,089,388 state residents employed.
These numbers were taken from the October 2007 Economic Indicators report of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, based on data supplied by the Texas Workforce Commission.
Minimum wage in Texas stood at $3.35 per hour prior to September 2001 (according to a 2005 report by the Center for Public Policy Priorities.) After September 2001, minimum wage was hiked to $5.15 per hour which was the federal minimum wage level set in 1997 by the both the US President and US Congress. The minimum wage of $5.15 per hour excludes people who work as:
• public officials
• salespeople
• professionals
• staff of nonprofit, charitable, educational, or religious organizations
• livestock dairying and production employees
• inmates
• students and certain other young residents
• family members
• and domestics.
These show that though Austin has not been able to eliminate unemployment, it has however been able to make some progress at improving the employment climate for Austin residents. Employers should do their research as to how Opportunity Austin and Portfolio Austin work exactly so that they do not face unpleasant surprises later on.
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Article Custom Written/compiled for Job Service Help by Mabelle Sese of The Filipino Worker Company. Updated October 22, 2007
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