Austin Unemployment Drops
Austin experienced the greatest jobs gain in Texas last month, according to numbers released today by the state. The area unemployment rate dropped to 5.9-percent. That’s down half a percent from July. Tiffany Daniels, from the employment advocacy group Workforce Solutions, says the job gains were broad based.
“Professional and business services, we saw gains of 2,300 hires in August,” Daniels said. “That is one of our strongest segments here, and again, expect to see continued growth in those areas. Local government, retail trade and financial activities also saw significant increases of 1,300 and 900, respectively.”
The Austin unemployment rate is now more than 1 percent below the Texas average and 2 percent lower than the national average. This is the third time this year that the unemployment rate has dropped below six percent. Prior to April 2012, Austin had not seen an unemployment rate below six percent since 2009.
