Jobs in Austin, TX

Jobs in Austin, TX, are supposedly plentiful as Austin keeps showing up on lists of best places in America to land a job. But newcomers to the state capital of Texas say that it isn’t such an easy feat to find a good job in Austin. For one thing, the University of Texas is a huge school that graduates a flood of new job seekers into the Austin employment market every year. Second, Austin is a much smaller town (population of 1.7 million) than larger Texas cities of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, so there are fewer opportunities than there are in those larger Texas cities. An old joke about the highly educated Austin population is, “What do you call an Austin cab driver?”

“Doctor.”

Austin, TX, USA

Austin, TX, USA

Photo courtesy of Kristin Bradley via Flickr Creative Commons

Nevertheless, many people are willing to be persistent in their Austin job search because Austin is well-known for:

  • 300 days of sunshine per year
  • Fun, progressive vibe
  • Reputation as “Live Music Capital of the World”
  • Citizens who care about the environment
  • Unique restaurant scene
  • Friendly, laid back people
  • Highland Lakes in and around Austin
  • Being a thriving technology center known as “Silicon Hills”
  • Entrepreneurial culture
  • Being the home of the “Keep Austin Weird” campaign

In 2011, the Austin American Statesman published this list of best workplaces in Austin.

According to the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the largest employers in Austin are (not in order, all have more than 6000 employees):

Austin Independent School District
City of Austin
Dell
U.S. Federal Government
IBM
Seton Healthcare Network
St. David’s Healthcare
State of Texas
University of Texas at Austin

Primary industries in Austin include semiconductors, software, digital media, wireless technology, biotech, and pharmaceutical.

If you are one of the people exploring jobs in Austin, TX, here are some employment resources to assist you:

Austin American-Statesman and Yahoo! HotJobs
Austin Craig’s List
Austin Jobs by Indeed.com
Austin Jobs by SimplyHired
Austin Jobs Online
Monster.com for Austin

For more general information about Austin as a place to live and work, Austin resident Brad Castro maintains an excellent resource to all things Austin at Real-Austin-Texas.com. I look at his site to plan my frequent weekend trips to Austin.

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