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Austin sizzles as the hottest U.S. job market, says Wall Street Journal

Austin aerial skyline with bridges and Lady Bird Lake

Austin has been crowned the country’s hottest job market for the third year in a row.

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Austin’s job market continues to be on a roll. For the third consecutive year, a study by The Wall Street Journal and Moody’s Analytics crowns Austin the country’s hottest job market among major metro areas.

In ranking the 55 metros with at least 1 million residents, the study looked at five attributes: job growth, unemployment rate, share of adults working or looking for work, change in the size of the workforce, and change in average weekly wages. Austin ranked first for job growth and share of adults working or looking for work, third for change in the size of the workforce, fourth for change in average weekly wages, and 17th for unemployment rate.

A ranking published in January by WalletHub, a personal finance website, put Austin at No. 5 among the best cities for jobs in 2022. Ahead of Austin were Columbia, Maryland; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; and Portland, Maine.

According to the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, Austin ranked as the best-performing job market among the 50 biggest metro areas from February 2020 to March 2022. During that period, the number of jobs in the Austin area rose by 7 percent, the chamber says. In May 2021, Austin became the first Texas metro to regain all of the jobs lost at the onset of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says.

Of course, the tech industry has driven much of the success of Austin’s job market, thanks to ramped-up hiring at big and small tech companies.

“In 2021, Austin cemented its status as a blossoming tech hub after recording record-high population growth and becoming the new location for Tesla’s headquarters,” Fortunesays.

Appearing behind Austin in The Wall Street Journal ranking, in descending order, are Nashville; Raleigh, North Carolina; Salt Lake City; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Elsewhere in Texas:

Dallas-Fort Worth sits at No. 11.
San Antonio sits at No. 21.
Houston sits at No. 52.

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Texas races to the bottom in new list of best states for cyclists

Photo by Justin Wallace on Unsplash

If you've ridden your bicycle in Austin, you already know how true this is.

In what will come as no surprise to cyclists around Austin, the state of Texas is not a good place for bicycle riding. According to a new report of the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S.," Texas comes in at No. 47 — meaning that only three other states are worse.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling-friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

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