Austin Ranks #2 in Best Performing Cities for Job Growth & Employment

How did Austin rank in job growth compared to the other top 50 U.S. Metros? We were Number Two in the nation!

When you compare to jobs lost in the U.S. in 2009 (4,941,700) or TEXAS (201,700), Austin’s performance is amazingly strong. With so many indications of growth returning to different segments of the economy, Austin is well positioned to benefit early on in the recovery.

The Austin Chamber of Commerce’s customary ranking of the best performing large metros, we retain second place behind Virginia Beach.
#2 Austin’s aggregate job losses of 2,300 (-0.3%) as compared to #1 Virginia Beach job losses of 1,600 (-0.2%).
Fort Worth was 8,000 (-0.9%)
San Antonio was 9,000 (-1.1%)
Dallas was 42,100 (-2.0%)
Houston was 92,500 (-3.5%)

Top 10 Best Performing Cities
1) Virginia Beach
2) Austin
3) Washington DC
4) Newark
5) Fort Worth
6) San Antonio
7) Edison
8) Columbus
9) Baltimore
10) Boston

Source: Austin Chamber of Commerce

Texas Job Growth Tops Nation for the Decade

While the rest of the nation fell behind, Texas continued to make strides in private sector job growth during the past 10 years.

Figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics showed Texas leading the nation with 724,300 more net private sector jobs in December 2009 compared with one decade ago.

Of the top 10 largest states ranked by civilian labor force, only Texas and Florida had positive job growth over the 10 year period.

Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken credits economic policies for better-than-the-rest job growth.

“While the rest of the nation has only seen net growth in government jobs, Texas’ business, tax, and economic policies have created an environment where businesses can succeed and create the jobs that will allow Texas to lead our nation out of this national recession,” Pauken said.

For December, Texas showed the lowest overall seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of large states at 8.3 percent, compared to 10 percent nationally. Austin rates were steady at 6.9 percent in December.

“Our nation cannot continue to spend its way out of the recession by incurring ever increasing amounts of government debt,” Pauken said. “For more than a year now I have been warning that Washington policymakers have failed to develop an economic policy designed to encourage capital investment and private sector job creation here in the United States. We need to act quickly in order to avoid a jobless recovery.”

Source: Austin Business Journal

Austin Ranked Best City to Invest in Commercial Real Estate

Austin Ranked Best City to Invest in Commercial Real Estate

Austin has the best prospects for commercial real estate investment this year, a Grubb & Ellis Co. forecast reported today.

The Santa Ana, Calif-based real estate services and investment firm said it expects commercial real estate will continue to falter this year, but at a slower rate, according to the 2010 forecast. Most property types will reach bottom pricing near the end of 2010 with a slow recovery beginning in 2011, officials said.

In a ranking of the top 10 markets for long-term office, industrial, retail and multi-housing investment potential, Austin was listed No. 1. Houston was the only other Texas city to make the list, taking the sixth spot.

“Because commercial real estate lags the labor market, it still has a ways to go before reaching its own low point,” said Bob Bach, Grubb & Ellis senior vice president and chief economist. “The good news is that the freefall we saw in 2009 is over and the future is more certain, giving owners and users of real estate the confidence to begin making decisions again.”

The investment market will see a slight rebound in 2010, according to the forecast, with at least some assets entering the market in 2010. Officials said the shift should prompt increased sales volume of 20 to 30 percent. The report said record-high office vacancy rates will likely continue, reaching as high as 19 percent by the year’s close.

Source: Austin Business Journal : Monday, January 4, 2010

Austin Area Tops City Performance Index

The Austin-Round Rock area was named the best performing city on the 2009 Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best Performing Cities Index.

Killeen-Fort Hood-Temple, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown were second, fourth and fifth, respectively. Also, Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown was named one of the top five largest cities, and Midland was named the No. 1 small metro.

The index ranks U.S. metro areas based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, measuring employment, salary growth and technology output.

“Texas’ strong position in our best performing cities study demonstrates that a favorable business climate, combined with a low-cost/low-tax environment, is highly supportive of job creation,” said Ross DeVol, senior economist at the Milken Institute and lead author of the report. “The state has diversified its economy by fostering several key high-tech clusters, and the passage of Proposition 4, allocating $500 million in funding for research universities, will make Texas an even more formidable competitor in the future.”

Austin a Top Place to Launch a Small Business

With so many Americans in the unemployment line these days, a growing number are looking at entrepreneurship as an option. That's what makes this year's list of the best cities to start a small business from Fortune all the more timely.

The folks at Fortune rank Austin eighth on this year's list, behind cities such as Houston, Raleigh, N.C. and No. 1 Oklahoma City. Austin got kudos for its angel investment groups, business-friendly tax structure and support for business development in sectors like tech.

"The Austin metro area, which has doubled its population growth in the last 20 years, is often used as a test market by national companies because its large minority population reflects the nation's future demographic mix," Fortune said. "With University of Texas college students in residence, the area offers entrepreneurial opportunities for the youth market and skilled workers for local businesses. One-third of the area's payroll is related to technology jobs, contributing to Austin's reputation for having one of the most educated workforces in the nation."

But it isn't all roses for Austin. Fortune cited some complaints from business owners such as transportation issues and lack of flights to desired markets.

Fortune's top 10 cities:

1)Oklahoma City, OK
2)Pittsburgh, Penn.
3)Raleigh, NC
4)Houston
5)Hartford, Conn.
6)Washington D.C.
7)Carlotte, NC
8)Austin
9)New York City
10)Baltimore, MD

Source: Austin Business Journal

Austin 2nd of 40 Strongest US Ecomonies!

Austin-Round Rock, TX
Overall rank: 2

Austin, a high-tech center, is also home to the University of Texas. Employment in the Austin metro peaked in the fourth quarter of last year. Gross metropolitan product peaked in the second quarter. Home prices grew 2.5% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. And the unemployment rate in June was 7.1%, up 2.6 points from a year earlier. (Please see below for the various criteria used by the Brookings Institution to determine the overall ranking.)

Job growth (since peak) rank: 2
Gross Metro Product (since peak) rank: 2
Unemployment change (year over year) rank: 16
Home price change (year over year) rank: 18

1) San Antonio, TX
2) Austin/Round Rock, TX
3) Okalahoma City, OK
4) Little Rock/Conway, AR
5) Dallas/Ft.Worth/Arlington, TX
6) Baton Rouge, LA
7) Tulsa, OK
8) Omaha,NE/Council Bluffs, IA
9) Houston/Sugarland/Baytown, TX
10)El Paso, TX

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HOW DID THEY DO IT?

Employment and Economic Muscle
Using data and analysis from the Brookings Institution's new MetroMonitor study, BusinessWeek.com ranked the nation's top 40 economies based on job growth, employment, economic growth, and home prices. And Texas seems to be the clear winner with San Antonio at the top of the list and five metros in the top 10. To see which metros made the list, read on.

The Brookings Institution ranked the 100 largest metros by averaging the ranks for four key indicators: employment change, unemployment change, gross metropolitan product, and home price change. Employment was measured by the change from the peak quarter for each metro to the second quarter of 2009. The peak was the quarter in which the metro had the most jobs during the past five years. Unemployment was ranked by measuring the percentage-point change from the first quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2009. Gross metropolitan product was measured from the peak quarter to the second quarter of 2009. And the ranking of home prices compared the second quarter of 2009 to the previous quarter. The employment data were provided by Moody's Economy.com, the unemployment data were collected from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the home price index came from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
By Prashant Gopal
Source: The Brookings Institution's MetroMonitor

Austin cited as one of the next "youth-magnet" cities

According to the Journal, "Austin has become a gathering place for tech- and arts-conscious young adults." The paper also lauded Austin for its cultural attractions like the Austin City Limits Music Festival and South by Southwest. But some of those polled by the Journal expressed concern over how strongly Austin will bounce back from the recession.

What do Washington D.C., Seattle, New York, Portland and Austin all have in common? They are the five cities that top a new Wall Street Journal poll on where young people are likely to flock once economic recovery takes hold.

The Journal polled a panel of experts, from demographers to economists, on where young college graduates are likely to congregate in coming years. Austin ranked fifth on the list with the lowest unemployment rate of the five cities and a relatively high median household income. The Capital of Texas didn't fare quite so well as the others on the education front, with 41.8 percent of 25-35 year olds holding a bachelors degree or higher compared with 61.3 percent in Washington and 64.2 percent in Seattle.

The top 10 post-recession boom towns for the young and ambitious:

1. (tie) Washington D.C.
1. Seattle
3. New York
4. Portland
5. Austin
6. San Jose, Calif.
7. Denver
8. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
9. Dallas
10. Chicago

Austin Business Journal

Austin Among Best Performing U.S. Metros (Economic Recovery)

Austin and San Antonio will be the first two U.S. cities to recover from the recession, according to a new national forecast from IHS Global Insight.

The forecast from the Lexington, Mass. economic research firm suggests the two Texas cities will bounce back to their pre-recession job levels sometime next year.
Eight other metropolitan areas are predicted to recover by 2011, a group that includes Texas’ two largest markets, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, along with Washington, D.C.

IHS Global Insight said most metros will start adding employment next year, but the increases are likely to be tepid. “Solid gains will not return for the majority of the country until 2011,” the report said.

Austin is also named one of the 20 best performing metropolitan areas in the second quarter of 2009, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. The second quarter MetroMonitor report tracked nine metrics in 100 U.S. metro areas, and found Austin was a leader in many of those, from percent change in gross metropolitan product to percent change in housing prices.

Employment in Austin fell 0.5 percent from its pre-recession peak, that was the second-narrowest gap in the nation. The Texas Capital was also one of only three metro areas that surpassed their pre-recession peak output by the second quarter of 2009. Along with the other two cities, McAllen and Washington D.C., Austin was one of those least affected by the downturn.

The report’s authors said the figures reveal some stark differences in economic performance among metro areas. “Signs at the national level that job and income losses are slowing continue to mask the highly variable performance of individual metropolitan economies,” said Alan Berube, co-author of the report. “While several metro areas may have reached a turning point, there are many others that still have not touched bottom, as well as a few that have almost fully recovered.”
Texas had the strongest showing, with six cities among the 20 strongest metro areas: Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston, McAllen and San Antonio. Florida dominated the list of the 20 weakest metro areas with eight, including Bradenton, Cape Coral, Lakeland, Miami, Orlando, Palm Bay and Tampa.
For the full report, click here.

Source: Austin Business Journal

Austin 7th Most Generous Big City for Online Giving

The recession doesn't appear to be keeping many Austinites from giving to nonprofits.
According to data from Convio Inc., the Capital City was the 7th most generous big city in the nation based on per capita online giving during the first eight months of this year.

Austin ranked 14th on the list in 2008. The rankings are based on the online donations Convio processed on behalf of thousands of nonprofits between January and August.

The top 10 big cities for online giving are:

1) Alexandria, Va.
2) Cambridge, Mass.
3) Minneapolis
4) Arlington, Va.
5) Seattle
6) St. Louis
7) Austin
8) Bellevue, Wash.
9) Washington D.C.
10) Pittsburgh

Another Central Texas city, Georgetown, ranked third on the list for most generous small cities, or those with a population of under 100,000.
"As the Internet pervades all aspects of our life it continues to become a growth engine for nonprofit fundraising," said Convio CEO Gene Austin.
For the full rankings, click here.

Source: Austin Business Journal

Austin Ranked in Top 10 list of Nation's Green Cities

The City of Austin was recently named as one of the nation’s 10 greenest cities by the Mother Nature Network, an environmental news and information site founded by Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.

Austin ranked number 10 on the list, with Portland ranking No. 1. Other cities on the list include: San Francisco, Boston, Berkeley and Seattle.

In the ranking, the network cited Austin’s Climate Protection Program, a plan to go carbon-neutral by 2020; and the city’s electric utility Austin Energy, the nation’s largest provider of renewable energy, among its reasons for naming Austin a Top 10 Green City.
"Austin is a green city because of our engaged community, and we hope our residents will continue to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions," Ester Matthews, director of the Austin Climate Protection Program, said in a statement.

Austin Leads Nation Again on Job Growth

The Austin area was the nation’s strongest big-city job market last month, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Among the 38 metro areas with a workforce of at least 750,000, Austin was the only one that gained jobs from April 2008 to April 2009, the bureau said. It was the third month in a row that Austin had earned that distinction.

Austin added 3,400 jobs in that period, a 0.4 percent gain, during that period.
Among other technology hubs, the Silicon Valley area lost jobs at a 4.4 percent annual rate in April. Portland, Ore., was down 4.7 percent, Seattle was down 3.4 percent and Raleigh, N.C., was down 3.3 percent. Some smaller cities also racked up gains, including Midland, up 2.2 percent, and Odessa, up 2.9 percent.

By American Statesman staff Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 11:22 AM