The unemployment rate in Central Texas slipped to 7.1% in October, down from 7.5% the month before. The news points to a significantly brighter jobs outlook in Austin than in Texas overall, where the unemployment rate is 8%. (The national unemployment rate now stands at 8.6%). The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in October unemployment fell in 281 of the 372 metropolitan areas that it surveys.
Roughly 65,000 Central Texans are currently out of work and looking for jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The overall workforce in Central Texas is now estimated at 923,000 people. Among the largest employers in Central Texas, Dell, and Freescale both show a large number of current Central Texas job openings, and AT&T is listings dozens of Austin jobs at Telecomcareers.com.
In other U.S. technology hot spots, unemployment is much higher. Unemployment rates in California’s Bay Area are above 9%, with the San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont area registering 9.1% for October and Silicon Valley (San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara) at 9.5%.
