Austin Ranked 3rd Best Performing City, 1st For Jobs: Reports

AUSTIN, TX — Austin is among the nation's top three best-performing cities and the No. 1 in terms of jobs, according to a pair of new reports.

The Milken Institute has ranked Austin third in its annual Best-Performing Cities report, the same ranking it gave the city last year. Researchers considered myriad factors in achieving the rankings, including jobs, salaries, wages and the gross domestic product derived from each city's high tech industry.

"Metros are ranked on their performance, while indicators help identify the drivers behind their success or failure," analysts explained in their report. "With this publication, we hope metros will learn from others’ experiences and enhance urban economies in the long run."

According to its website, the Milken Institute is an independent economic think tank based in Santa Monica, California, that publishes research and hosts conferences applying market-based principles and financial innovations to social issues in the U.S. and internationally.

As it relates to Austin, the report lauded the metro area's low tax rate and lower cost of living in spite of the burgeoning tech industry and the inferred influx of a higher demographic such industries bring — and the invariably increase in property taxes as high-end housing is built to accommodate the new arrivals.

While residents on ground level are feeling the pinch of resulting gentrification amid a changing landscape, Milken Institute researchers not it's still cheaper to live in the Austin metro area than at other locales with bustling high tech sectors.

"Economic development in Austin-Round Rock is like that of the state’s, offering a low tax rate and abundant space for further expansion and development," researchers wrote. "And, while Austin’s high tech sector has taken off, the region still maintains a lower cost of living compared to coastal technology centers, although wage rates in key occupation categories are lower than the national average."

Analysts ticked off a list of top tech firms dotting the Austin metro landscape as proof of its growth: "The Austin-Round Rock area is a diverse economy with many globally renowned corporations such as Dell, Resideo Technologies Inc., Apple Inc., IBM, AMD, and Applied Materials. True to the nickname “Silicon Hills,” the region ranks ninth overall for high-tech GDP concentration because of these tech heavyweights. Information and professional/engineering service sectors are the two high-growth areas, commanding one-year growth rates of 3.3 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively."

Also touted as performance drivers were the University of Texas at Austin as well as the ample support available for academic and industry research and development. Also noted was the region's robust metropolitan statistical area (MSA), a term referencing a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area.

"The sizable public sector is a strong stabilizer during economic and technological cycles and helps to explain the remarkable consistency of the regional economy," researchers wrote. "Austin-Round Rock MSA, like the state of Texas, successfully continues to brand itself as a friendly place for business. In the last few years, domestic firms such as Oracle have expanded their footprint in Austin. In addition, Samsung and others often consider the region when expanding their operations."

Besting Austin among the top three best-performing cities were San Francisco and Provo, Utah. Rounding out the top ten are: Reno, Nevada; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California; Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida; Boise City, Idaho; Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington; Dallas-Plano-Irving, Texas; and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida.

To download a PDF of the full report, click here.

The report comes on the heels of a Wall Street Journal analysis that ranked Austin as the nation's top city for jobs for the second year in a row. The business publication utilized Moody's Analytics data as part of its reckoning, with metrics that included new jobs, unemployment rates and wage growth.