Austin! Continues to attract "High Tech"!!

[soonerguru]

It's really not that complicated, there is only one thing that keeps Austin booming, professional high-tech paying jobs. After that, comes everything else...

Wow. Disagree. It's first and foremost the quality of life and the availability of a highly educated work force. People want to live in Austin. High tech, high-paying employers tend to locate where they have access to a high quality talent pool.

[bluedogok]

It's really not that complicated, there is only one thing that keeps Austin booming, professional high-tech paying jobs. After that, comes everything else...

Wow. Disagree. It's first and foremost the quality of life and the availability of a highly educated work force. People want to live in Austin. High tech, high-paying employers tend to locate where they have access to a high quality talent pool.

Both are actually true, it is a chicken/egg argument at this point because they have the momentum. Right now there there are way more job seekers than jobs in the tech industry because of the changing landscape of tech and the influx of people moving there without a job. Some love it and eventually find something and some move onto some other place. Tech is still a pretty hard industry to get into because of the surplus of talent available. A friend who moved there from OKC in 1988 worked in the semiconductor industry for a lot of years until it closed up shop. They moved back to OKC for awhile and then back to Austin, he just got a job at the Samsung plant after trying to get out of the tech sector for awhile.

When I moved there in 2003 (to get married) it took me two years to find a job (did contract work in the interim) because of the tech bust that happened in the post Y2K era and the drop off in development. One firm I interviewed with had over 100 resumes for a position and I was one of four interviewed. When I did get a job it was because the development started ramping up again.

[soonerguru]

Both are actually true, it is a chicken/egg argument at this point because they have the momentum. Right now there there are way more job seekers than jobs in the tech industry because of the changing landscape of tech and the influx of people moving there without a job. Some love it and eventually find something and some move onto some other place. Tech is still a pretty hard industry to get into because of the surplus of talent available. A friend who moved there from OKC in 1988 worked in the semiconductor industry for a lot of years until it closed up shop. They moved back to OKC for awhile and then back to Austin, he just got a job at the Samsung plant after trying to get out of the tech sector for awhile.

When I moved there in 2003 (to get married) it took me two years to find a job (did contract work in the interim) because of the tech bust that happened in the post Y2K era and the drop off in development. One firm I interviewed with had over 100 resumes for a position and I was one of four interviewed. When I did get a job it was because the development started ramping up again.

I agree that it takes more jobs to sustain Austin's boom, but it was the quality of life and educated workforce that happened first. Austin didn't just go out and start bribing major employers to locate there. That's not what happened.

[bluedogok]

I agree that it takes more jobs to sustain Austin's boom, but it was the quality of life and educated workforce that happened first. Austin didn't just go out and start bribing major employers to locate there. That's not what happened.

They have had several booms in various sectors of technology, the "quality of life/jobs" pretty much happened concurrently. One doesn't really happen without the other. They have always had a large student base which helped attract employers at first but most of the people relocating there now are post-graduate. There are just people from schools all over the country that there are probably more with no connection to UT there now than those who do. Austin was always known for a burgeoning music scene when Willie Nelson moved back to Texas after a stint in Nashville. Music was why my friend moved there in 1988 playing in several bands, in the 90's he got a "real job" in a semiconductor plant. It has always been the case of some people moving there because of lifestyle and some moving because of jobs, I had co-workers of both persuasions. One moved from DC because her boyfriend got a job in Austin so they relocated. One relocated to Austin from Chicago win no job to be closer to his ailing mother in Monterrey, Mexico, he has since moved back to Chicago. Some went to school at UT or Texas State from other parts of the sate and never left the area (like my wife did for 20+ years). Some relocated from elsewhere because they found a job first (like I did moving from Austin to Denver).

In the 70's you had IBM locate there which was really the start of the tech boom, you had many other companies locating there because of the IBM manufacturing facilities. The Domain is the brownfield redevelopment of former IBM and Tokyo Semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Motorola had many fabs there (later spun off into Freescale). 3M located a large R&D center there and at one time threaten the State of Minnesota with relocating their HQ there leaving St. Paul. In the 80's Dell exploded in size and software development started taking hold, that started the movement of companies there servicing Dell and others. AMD had a large presence there and Intel a sizable one. The 90's also had a tech/telecom boom, when the telecom bust happened it was another down cycle. All of the very large companies had some sort of incentive (outside of Dell which started in Austin) from the state to locate large facilities there. In many cases that led to the others locating to service those companies without incentives. Boxx Technologies relocated from the Phoenix area because of Dell and the suppliers who were local to Dell so it made it easier for them to make their specialty PC business work better.

I still say it is a chicken/egg argument because both jobs and quality of life are so intertwined, without one the other would suffer and would ultimately be unsustainable.

Austin's traffic problem is due to the fact it only has one Interstate running through it. The city was never designed to become as massive as it has become. Traffic was bad back in 2007 last time I was there. I can only imagine how bad it is today.

Austin is ahead, significantly, as far as retail/grocery as you mentioned, but those things aren't why somebody would choose to live in Austin. Austin is attractive due to the arts/cultural scene and the outdoor recreation. It's live music scene is one of its biggest assets. It's attractive due to the focus on urban development and walkability in their core. Its attractive due to the progressive politics and reputation for being very tolerant of diverse cultures and lifestyles. It's attractive due to a stronger focus being placed on intellectualism than in many other cities. It's really the model example for many cities, including OKC, in our own downtown gentrification. Another area where Austin is great is single life as the prime age for marriage there, as is the case in most progressive cities, a few years later than it is here in OKC. It however, Austin is not for everyone and it does have its disadvantages.

Personally if I was going to live in Texas Houston would be my top choice followed by Dallas and then Austin. Austin though is a great example though of what kind of city is attractive to the up and coming generation.

Many Austinites still harbor this notion that Austin should always be a "hippie college town" like it was when they moved there to go to school. That thinking infects the city council every so often and when it does they fight any means of growth. That is the reason why the highway development in the area has been lacking for a long time, some in power at crucial times literally had a "don't build it and they won't come" mentality. You also have constituents/legislators in DFW, Houston and San Antonio who have tended to block highway development in the Austin area as well. The representation of the area in the state legislature is fractured by gerrymandering. The internal and external factions restricting a comprehensive road plan has hamstrung the area as it has grown at the rate that it has.

Austin has no Kroger or Albertson's (left the market while I lived there), HEB dominates the area, Randall's is strong and Fiesta has a few stores.

[adaniel]

When I moved there in 2003 (to get married) it took me two years to find a job (did contract work in the interim) because of the tech bust that happened in the post Y2K era and the drop off in development. One firm I interviewed with had over 100 resumes for a position and I was one of four interviewed. When I did get a job it was because the development started ramping up again.

For all of the honey and sunshine emulating from Austin these days, I have to wonder if they have diversified their economy enough to avoid the ugliness from 2001-03. There seems to be a growing consensus that tech is in a pretty big bubble and its bound to pop in the next 2-3 years.

As far as non-IT employment is concerned, I've heard that Austin is a black hole, largely because it it a place so many move to without employment. I actually knew of someone who moved down there because he read in Forbes/Fortune/etc. how jobs are falling from the sky and what a cool party town it was with hot babes and live music on every corner. Long story short, after months of couch surfing and no prospects, he's now back in OKC with a job with Chaparral.

[bchris02]

I actually knew of someone who moved down there because he read in Forbes/Fortune/etc. how jobs are falling from the sky and what a cool party town it was with hot babes and live music on every corner. Long story short, after months of couch surfing and no prospects, he's now back in OKC with a job with Chaparral.

That's actually a common story. Because Austin is so popular, the job seeker to open position ratio is way out of whack and many people who move there actually end up underemployed. The same thing is also happening in Portland, Oregon, which is pretty much Austin's west coast sibling. Austin is a very attractive place for the culture and the lifestyle but it isn't all sunshine and roses. The media won't tell you that for every open position there is likely hundreds if not thousands of resumes submitted. Hopefully if the tech market crashes again they have diversified enough that it won't be as bad for them as it was during the early 2000s recession, a time when a lot of people were leaving Austin because it was so bad.

[bchris02]

Wow. Disagree. It's first and foremost the quality of life and the availability of a highly educated work force. People want to live in Austin. High tech, high-paying employers tend to locate where they have access to a high quality talent pool.

I agree. It's a catch 22. Young, educated professionals want to live in Austin and due to the talent surplus there its a very attractive place for jobs to locate. There are some places people move for jobs alone and there are others people move to for the lifestyle. Austin is one of those places people move to for the lifestyle and it just so happens to have a great job market. The quality of life down there is the envy of many cities including OKC. It's a place that is so attractive people will spend their life savings to move there without a job.

[soonerguru]

I agree. It's a catch 22. Young, educated professionals want to live in Austin and due to the talent surplus there its a very attractive place for jobs to locate. There are some places people move for jobs alone and there are others people move to for the lifestyle. Austin is one of those places people move to for the lifestyle and it just so happens to have a great job market. The quality of life down there is simply leaps and bounds beyond OKC (or any smaller city in the Midwest). It's a place that is so attractive people will spend their life savings to move there without a job. Compare that to OKC where headhunters sometimes have educated recruits turn down positions once the city is revealed because they cannot see themselves living here. I think it will be difficult for OKC to ever see the type of boom Austin is experiencing as long as the national perception (boring, backwards, country) persists.

Jesus. I can't agree with you even when I agree with you. Is everything so black and white? Your posts are depressing.

Is it possible for you to acknowledge that while Austin enjoys a favorable impression that is the envy of most cities, that OKC's, while behind, is improving?

[bchris02]

Jesus. I can't agree with you even when I agree with you. Is everything so black and white? Your posts are depressing.

Is it possible for you to acknowledge that while Austin enjoys a favorable impression that is the envy of most cities, that OKC's, while behind, is improving?

Edited it. OKC is improving and within the next five years, as the developments currently being announced get completed, will completely change the feel here.