Thanks in part to big moves by Big Tech, Austin has been ranked the top market for jobs in the U.S. for the second year in a row.
The ranking comes from The Wall Street Journal, which used data from Moody’s Analytics to rank large metro areas across the nation. The rankings were based on unemployment rates, new jobs and wage growth, among other factors.
Austin's top billing is driven in part by the rapid expansion of secondary office locations for some of the world's biggest tech companies. Apple, for example, is building a billion-dollar campus in northwest Austin. Meanwhile, Google, Facebook and Amazon have all recently added major, new office spaces and continued to grow their local ranks.
Add to that, a nearly constant flow of companies relocating headquarters to Austin and the emergence of dozens of new startups both locally grown and transplanted from other metros.
The city's continuing boom also goes well beyond tech, with strong growth in residential and commercial building.
Among Austin's enviable stats from 2019: Unemployment was at 2.7%, or fifth best in the nation. Its labor force participation also ranked fifth at 70.3%. Meanwhile, wages grew at 5%, good for third place. And labor force growth came in at 1.6% -- or 17th best, the data show.
Nashville, which recently secured a significant batch of new Amazon jobs as part of the company's growth there, ranked No. 2 in the Wall Street Journal list. Denver landed at No. 3, followed by Seattle and San Francisco.
Among smaller metros analyzed, Midland and Odessa ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Boulder, Colo., ranked No. 1 among the smaller cities.
