The City of Austin’s economy has remained very strong amid the pandemic, even as shutdowns and capacity limitations were wreaking havoc among businesses all over the area in early 2020. A new report from the Austin Chamber of Commerce spotlights that continued growth, pointing to Austin as one of the best-performing major job markets in America throughout the pandemic.
According to the Chamber’s CenTex Economy Report:
- Austin made up all of 2020’s pandemic-related job losses by May 2021 and the metro currently has 92,000 more jobs than it had in February 2020.
- Austin ranks as the best performing major job market since the beginning of the pandemic and the fourth best over the last 12 months.
- Austin’s leisure and hospitality industry added 2,800 jobs in April, surpassing pre-pandemic February 2020 for the first time—by 600 jobs or 0.4%.
- Austin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is 2.8% in April, up from 2.7% in March.
Austin’s year-over-year increase of 8.1%, or 92,100 jobs, makes it the fourth best performing among the 50 largest metro areas. Dallas (8.0%) is also in the top 10. Fort Worth (5.8%), Houston (5.6%), and San Antonio (4.9%) rank 14th, 18th, and 25th, respectively.
10 of the 11 major private industry sectors within Austin have added jobs over the last 12 months, most notably leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, information, and wholesale trade.
