Honor roll

UT Austin lands on LinkedIn list of 50 best schools for career success

UT Austin sets alumni up for the long haul.

UT Austin/Facebook

Not that Longhorns needed further proof that their degree holds great value, but The University of Texas at Austin has made the cut on LinkedIn’s first-ever ranking of the 50 best U.S. colleges for long-term career success.

UT lands at No. 46 on the prestigious new list, joining just two other Texas schools: Houston’s Rice University appears at No. 31, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas shows up at No. 37.

LinkedIn, a career networking site, says the ranking is based on exclusive data about alumni, such as job placement rates, advancement into senior-level jobs, post-graduate formation of startups, and pre-graduation internships.

“A four-year bachelor’s degree is a significant investment of time and money, especially as tuition costs rise and the job market shifts,” the LinkedIn report says. “For millions of Americans, the return on investment is worth it. Those who earn the degree can see an enduring impact on their earning potential and overall career trajectory.”

Where someone earns a degree can have an even bigger impact, according to LinkedIn, as graduates of top programs often land jobs more rapidly, build strong professional networks, and rise to leadership roles more quickly.

“Long-term success isn’t just about landing a great first job; it’s about sustained career growth and opportunity years after graduation,” Andrew Seaman, senior editor-at-large for jobs and career development at LinkedIn News, told Fortune. “For this list, that means looking at how well a school sets alumni up for the long haul.”

Topping the LinkedIn list are No. 1 Princeton University; No. 2 Duke University; No. 3 University of Pennsylvania; No. 4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and No. 5 Cornell University.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the data about the three Texas schools on the LinkedIn list:

The University of Texas at Austin

Tuition: $10,858 (in-state); $42,554 (out-of-state)
Undergraduate enrollment: 42,445
Top industries of graduates: Technology, medical practices, advertising
Top post-graduation destinations: Austin, Dallas, Houston
Most notable skills: SOLIDWORKS computer-aided design software, architecture, Avid Media Composer video editing software

Southern Methodist University

Tuition: $61,880
Undergraduate enrollment: 7,285
Top industries of graduates: Financial services, business consulting
Top post-graduation destinations: Dallas, New York City, Los Angeles
Most notable skills: AMPL programming language, Avid iNews content creation system, data science

Rice University

Tuition: $66,540
Undergraduate enrollment: 4,800
Top industries of graduates: Technology, business consulting, higher education
Top post-graduation destinations: Houston, San Francisco Bay Area, New York City
Notable skills: MATLAB programming language, engineering design, data science

The LinkedIn ratings come on the heels of several other prestigious college rankings in which UT Austin has scored well: Forbes list of America's top colleges; The Princeton Review's list of best U.S. colleges for 2026; and WalletHub's 2025 rankings of the best colleges in Texas.

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This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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Jobs report

Texas ranks among top 10 states to find a job, new report says

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

You have a better chance of landing a job in Texas than in most other states.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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