With 22,700 jobs added to the market, Austin’s Job Growth Rate is holding at 2.1{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} dropping it from the 11th fastest growing American major metro to 16th.
Looking into the March Jobs Report, the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Beverley Kerr said its too soon to point to a clear reason why the growth rate it slowing, but she does believe local population growth and low unemployment may be part of it.
“Population growth has slowed down in the last two years, Said Kerr, “we added about 53,000 people in 2018 and a similar number in 2017.” But she reported, from 2014-16 59,000 more people started calling the metro market home.
Austin’s low 2.7{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} unemployment rate is down by less than a percent from February.
However, Kerr noted the last few times this happened, the revised data showed Austin’s growth rate was much stronger.
By the Austin jobs market’s latest numbers, wholesale trade was again the fastest growing industry at 8.2{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1}. But the Austin Chamber of Commerce’s Beverley Kerr reports professional and business services still added the most, bringing in 6000 jobs. Kerr also mentions that manufacturing has been doing really well, more than 1,500 jobs have been added in the last 12 months.
The information sector, while small, also grew by 5{6d294a0824f6f808f1cc9dcde10d35acd237638cfa4e8dd876851c8906eac7a1} in the local metro, while nationwide it has continued to lose jobs.
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