Austin's Year in Review

These are the 10 biggest Austin stories of 2015

Editor's note: The top stories of 2015 represent the ups and downs of a year in Austin. Here's a look back at the 10 most-read CultureMap stories of the year, from the controversial to the uplifting.

1. Conflicting stories surround controversial demolition of East Austin piñata store. The abrupt demolition of Jumpolin on East Cesar Chavez in February 2015 resulted in the most controversial "he said she said" story of the year.

2. Sneak peek at the HGTV Smart Home in Zilker Park. Each year, HGTV builds and furnishes a Smart Home to be given away to a lucky sweepstakes winner. Last year, HGTV gave away a charming, high-tech home in Nashville. This year, it was a 2,300-square-foot house in the Zilker neighborhood.

3. New report ranks University of Texas the No. 1 school in the country. Get your horns up: For its 2016 list of Top Public Universities, Niche ranked UT Austin the best in the U.S.

4. Alamo Drafthouse launches epic sleepaway camp — for adults only. It's the stuff dreams are made of: Alamo Drafthouse's Rolling Roadshow and Do512 teamed up for Camp Halloweekend, a weekend of film screenings, live music, and camp activities for your inner kid.

5. Affordable Austin suburb named America's No. 1 place to live. Finding the best place to live is often a compromise between affordability and fun — but in Round Rock, you can have it all.

6. Best boss ever: Texas billionaire gives $100,000 holiday bonus to every employee. Houston businessman Jeffrey Hildebrand gave each of his 1,381 employees a massive holiday bonus.

7. Misery loves tacos: Austin is one of the unhappiest places to work in the country. Based on an annual study by CareerBliss, Austin was the No. 5 unhappiest city to work in 2015. Key factors included compensation, work-life balance, and company culture.

8. Where to eat in Austin: The six best downtown lunch spots. While there are dozens of downtown options, our picks for the workday classics are nice enough to appeal to the food-focused, formal enough to make out-of-towners feel comfortable, and cost-competitive enough to not get your per diem revoked.

9. Coachella lineup could provide a sneak peek at 2015 ACL Music Fest. When the 2015 Coachella lineup was announced, we correctly predicted that many of the big names — Drake, Hozier, The Weeknd, Tame Impala, and more — would also show up on the ACL lineup.

10. World-famous Voodoo Doughnut to open Austin shop. In March, news broke that beloved Portland-based doughnut shop would open on Sixth Street. Now Austinites can get their fill of pastries like the Iconic Voodoo Doll and the Maple Blazer Blunt.

The Coachella lineup provided a sneak peek at the Austin City Limits Music Fest headliners.

Austin City Limits Festival ACL Fest 2014 Weekend Two Crowd

Photo by Daniel Cavazos

The Coachella lineup provided a sneak peek at the Austin City Limits Music Fest headliners.

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Towering above

Austin named a top 'city on the rise' on new booming job markets list

Photo courtesy of Metropia

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When it comes to jobs and workforce talent, Austin is a city on the rise, according to a new ranking from professional networking and career development platform LinkedIn. The Austin metro area ranks 18th on LinkedIn’s first-ever Cities on the Rise list.

San Antonio was the only other Texas city to make the list, coming in a few places behind Austin, at No. 23.

“We analyzed LinkedIn’s exclusive labor market data to identify 25 emerging metro areas where hiring is accelerating, job postings are surging, and talent migration is reshaping local economies,” the platform says.

The list features midsize metros with fewer than 2.5 million LinkedIn members. The full report includes insights on the average income and home listing prices in the metro, as well as top destinations for residents (compiled using Lyft data), "providing a window into the places shaping each city’s culture."

LinkedIn says Austin earned its No. 18 position thanks to major corporate relocations, a data center boom, and investments by tech giants. These factors “are sustaining Austin’s continued rise as a vibrant hub for job growth and stimulating billions of dollars in local infrastructure projects to keep up with the metro’s growth,” says LinkedIn.

Top industries hiring in Austin include professional services, technology, and manufacturing; the city's top employers are The University of Texas at Austin, Dell Technologies, and Apple, the study says.

Adding to the city's appeal, according to LinkedIn, the average income in Austin is $80,470, average home listing price is $805,670, and "Nightlife is the star in the capital of the Lone Star state, with locals most likely to make their way to a concert, club or bar."

How San Antonio compares
In assigning the No. 23 spot to San Antonio, LinkedIn says the metro area “is reinventing itself as a rising tech and manufacturing hub — drawing Gen Z job seekers and out-of-state talent.”

Top industries hiring in San Antonio include professional services, healthcare, and government administration. Not surprisingly, the city's top employers are listed as USAA, U.S. Air Force, and H-E-B.

According to LinkedIn, the average income in San Antonio is $59,480, and average home listing price is $470,160 (much lower than Austin's).

As for hotspots that attract young professionals, "the city’s iconic River Walk serves as the heart of the city’s vibrant nightlife, drawing locals to nearby bars and restaurants," the study says.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, grabbed the top spot on the Cities on the Rise list for midsize areas.

A separate ranking for large metro areas with more than 2.5 million LinkedIn members puts the San Francisco Bay Area at No. 1. LinkedIn says this signals “that job market momentum is driving the metro’s post-pandemic revival.”

Neither Dallas-Fort Worth nor Houston appears in this 10-city ranking.

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