Austin among the leading US cities emerging from recession

Austin among the leading US cities emerging from recession

Austin has been ranked in the top 20 US cities with strong population growth, the study was done by the Census Bureau, this is a reflection of the sound economic performance of Texas as whole (the state had several of its cities in the top 20), and subsequently may be given four additional House seats following the 2010 census.

There are a number of reasons for the strong growth in population that Austin has seen, chief among these is a sound record of economic performance and job growth, the increase in the city’s population is driven mainly by pull, rather than push, factors. This means that individuals moving to the city are pulled here by job opportunities, rather than pushed here by retrenchment or unhappiness with their previous home.

Another reason for the population increase is, of course, the recession, that ever-present financial calamity that has wormed its way into almost everyone’s lives. Many baby boomers who would previously have retired and moved away to traditional retirement states, such as Florida, are now staying in the job market, because their savings have been eroded, or because they feel uncomfortable retiring in an unstable economy.

This, along with Austin’s growing reputation as a place of growing innovation for small businesses, has enabled the city to weather the recession rather well in comparison to other big cities.

Nine local businesses in Austin were featured in a recent issue of Time Magazine as an example of the kind of innovation that the country needs in driving job growth. Small businesses are an essential part of the economy, according to Austin news sources they contribute over 60% to the city’s GDP.

This is Austin’s strength. It is still seen as a city where job creation, and wealth creation, can happen, and small business owners here are not plagued by quite as much uncertainty as elsewhere in the country.

There are a number of reasons for this, which were outlined in the recent issue of Time. As the state capital, Austin has some inherent stability, it also houses the University of Texas, which produces highly trained tertiary education students that can enter the job market and lead it forward. Austin is also the technology center of the Southwest, which provides for the creation of many high-growth companies.

The city has stumbled like other US cities though, there is an unemployment rate in Austin that is much higher than it was a few years ago, there are thousands of workers who cannot find another job, this is especially true of people who used to work for big companies, like Dell, that were forced to down-size.

But, overall, its unemployment rate is three points below the national average, and new job opportunities are cropping up every day, there are countless examples of the city’s inherent entrepreneurial spirit.

In the past two months a video-game company hired 50 new employees, a new LED lighting manufacturer is hiring on the outskirts of town, lab workers are needed for a pharmaceutical start-up. The same can be said of other cities in the US, but Austin is comfortably leading the recovery, and has developed a reputation as one of the cities where jobs are finally beginning to reappear in significant numbers.