Austin Economy Holding Firm in Tough Times

Austin area job-seekers can take solace is the fact that, despite the recent layoffs in the mortgage industry, the area's economy is actually fairing better than most cities are. According to Brian Kelsey, the assistant director of the Capital Area Council of Government, the “regional job growth is the Austin-Round Rock area was above 2.5 percent during the past seven years, outpacing both state and national job growth rates during that time period.”

Within the last year, there have been 1,275 new manufacturing jobs in Austin. In a time when many cities throughout the nation are experiencing a cut back in this industry, Austin's statistics seem especially promising.

As the world becomes smaller through the use of technology, it is no surprise that many new Austin jobs were added in the IT sector. With the addition of 64 new computer programming firms, 1,261 new Austin jobs were created last year. The computer systems design sector saw the opening of 48 new firms, which brought approximately 440 new jobs to the area in 2006. Wired telecommunications firms added 45 new businesses and 939 new employees.
Over the past year there has been 33,100 new Austin jobs generated. There have also been 36 corporations to announce plans to relocate to the Austin area, which will bring a sizable number of jobs to the city.

At a recent CAPCOG meeting, an updated version of the five-year workforce strategy plan was presented. This plan discussed the creation of new Austin jobs and the city's plan to attract corporations with relocation in mind to the area, in hopes of diversifying the city's economy. The chamber plans on creating 72,000 new Austin jobs and is aiming to entice at least 100 new businesses to the city.