Austin unemployment stands lower than Texas, national rates
AUSTIN (KXAN) — While the state makes record job gains, the Austin metro's unemployment rate sits 1% lower than the Texas rate and also lower than the national rate.
Austin's unemployment stands at 2.8%—unchanged from September—with over 38,000 unemployed people in the Austin metro area. This is lower than Texas' 3.8% unemployment rate and below the 3.4% national rate, according to Workforce Solutions Capital Area, which covers Austin and Travis County.
The Austin metro added about 14,200 jobs between September and October, with a total of 56,900 jobs added since October 2021.
The professional/business services, leisure/hospitality, government, trade, transportation/utilities and manufacturing industries saw job growth from September to October.
Workforce Solutions Capital Area's CEO Tamara Atkinson said there are growing concerns about layoffs in enterprise-sized businesses, particularly in the tech sector.
“However, the Austin job market remains strong, and many tech companies are still hiring for critical positions, and we know some that paused or slowed down hiring foresee normal hiring going into Q2 2023," Atkinson said in a release.
Between September and October, the financial activities sector lost about 900 jobs—the greatest regional job loss.
According to the Texas Workforce Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Texas experienced the fastest annual job growth rate in a year through October 2022.
The state also broke its all-time record for total jobs for the 12th consecutive month, as employers added 49,500 nonfarm jobs last month.