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Hardworking Austin clocks in as No. 3 labor market in the country, report says

Austin's got a great work ethic.

Photo by Tom Werner/Getty Images

Austin is proving its worth as a robust employment center.

A new report from Dallas-based ThinkWhy, a producer of talent intelligence software, ranks the Capital City as the No. 3 top-performing labor market in the country.

Dallas-Fort Worth was listed as the No. 1 metro labor market, and ThinkWhy’s LaborIQ Market Index puts Houston at No. 8 and San Antonio at No. 24.

The most recent index is based on 10 key economic indicators from September for 150 metro areas.

Austin ticks all the boxes for a top-performing metro area: net migration, college degree holders, working age population growth, job gains, job growth, and recovery. But the region is lacking in the area of wage growth, according to the index.

“All four of Texas’ major metros — which rank among the largest in the country — are expected to remain top-performing metros for an extended period. Due to the sheer size of these labor markets, their recovery will significantly impact the national economy,” ThinkWhy says.

In August, Austin became one of the three largest metros — along with Salt Lake City and Phoenix — to recover all jobs lost to the pandemic, according to ThinkWhy. DFW and San Antonio are set to join those ranks in 2022, with Houston expected to fully recover lost jobs in 2023.

“Retention of talent will be a major risk for businesses the remainder of this year,” Jay Denton, chief labor market analyst at ThinkWhy, says in a news release. “With a record number of job openings, businesses are trying different methods to retain and attract employees, and compensation has been a critical part of that equation.”

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Google soars to No. 3 in prestigious list of Forbes' best employers in Texas

Rendering courtesy of Steelblue/Trammell Crow

It's a blast to work at Google, according to Forbes.

Austin continues to prove it hosts the best of the best employers in Texas, as mega tech giants Google and Apple move into highly-coveted spots on Forbes' 2023 list of "America’s Best Employers By State".

The highly anticipated list, published August 22, is a collaboration between Forbes and Statista to survey the satisfaction levels of tens of thousands of workers employed by national companies.

Though the company is based in Mountain View, California, Google's mammoth presence in Austin (coupled with a great work environment and advancement opportunities) is what propels it to the top in Texas year after year. It is the No. 2 best employer in its home state. The 2023 ranking in Texas is a major improvement from its No. 14 rank in Forbes' 2022 list.

Apple also made its way through the ranks in Forbes 2023 list, ranking No. 13. Since Apple's expansion into the city, with the construction of a massive $1 billion campus in Northwest Austin, the company now employs 164,000 people everywhere — 7,500 more than Google.

Forbes explains that the national list isn't the same as its best large employers list; It's meant to serve as an in-depth analysis of companies that are "closer-to-home options for every American worker."

Forbes and Statista determined their rankings by surveying 70,000 Americans working at employers in the U.S. with at least 500 employees each. The final list features 1,392 highly recommended employers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nearly 270 employers ranked highly in multiple states.

Here are the 30 best large employers in Texas, as determined by Forbes and Statista:

Austin:

No. 3 – Google (based in Mountain View, California; major corporate hub in Austin)
No. 13 – Apple (based in Cupertino, California; major corporate hub in Austin)

San Antonio:

No. 2 – H-E-B (based in San Antonio; more than 300 stores in Texas)
No. 26 – University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Houston area:

No. 1 – NASA (based in Washington, D.C.; Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake)
No. 4 – Houston Community College
No. 5 – Houston Methodist
No. 6 – Texas Children's Hospital
No. 18 – National Oilwell Varco
No. 19 – Bechtel (based in Reston, Virginia; major corporate hub in Houston)

Dallas-Fort Worth:

No. 6 – Texas Oncology, based in Dallas
No. 9 – Fidelity Investments (based in Boston; major corporate hub in Westlake)
No. 14 – Capital One (based in Richmond, Virginia; major corporate hub in Plano)
No. 17 – University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas
No. 22 – Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas
No. 24 – Texas Health Resources, based in Arlington
No. 25 – General Motors (based in Detroit, Michigan; major assembly hub in Arlington)
No. 27 – City of Plano
No. 28 – Toyota North America, based in Plano

Throughout Texas:

No. 8 – Salesforce (based in San Francisco, California; offices in Austin and Dallas)
No. 10 – IKEA (based in Sweden; five stores in Texas)
No. 11 – Costco (based in Issaquah, Washington; 38 stores in Texas)
No. 15 – Cardinal Health (based in Dublin, Ohio; 23 locations in Texas)
No. 16 – Microsoft (based in Redmond, Washington; offices in Austin, Dallas, Friendswood, Frisco, Houston, San Antonio, and The Woodlands)
No. 20 – Leidos (based in Reston, Virginia; locations in San Antonio, Houston, and Webster)
No. 21 – Cisco Systems (based in San Jose, California; offices in Austin, Dallas, Irving, Richardson, Houston, Laredo, and San Antonio)
No. 23 – IBM (based in Armonk, New York; offices in Austin, Houston, Dallas, and Frisco)
No. 29 – Nike (based in Beaverton, Oregon; 26 locations in Texas)
No. 30 – Charles Schwab (based in San Francisco, California; 25 locations in Texas)

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