This is mainly for two reasons: Computer tech companies continue to come to the Austin area, and we have an oil boom in lower south Texas. These two industries, especially the oil one, explode jobs from industries that support oil drilling, many of them located in Houston, and computer tech. companies need employees in the larger Austin area.
Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Board, told me that if you look at the number of jobs created since the recession technically ended in June 2009, Texas has accounted for 48 percent of net new jobs created in the U.S.
Fisher also disparages claims that the jobs are all low-paying jobs at McDonald’s or Walmart, paying the minimum wage, or that they were primarily caused by the oil and natural gas boom. According to Tom Pauken of the Texas Work Force Commission, the annual median wage in Texas in 2010 for all occupations was $31,500 a year, only 7 percent below the national average. That difference is easily explained by the fact that Texas has a younger workforce than most states and a higher percentage of workers in lower-pay agriculture jobs near the border with Mexico. [ CW: Cost of living in Texas is lower than many other states; Texas has no state income tax; Texas is a right to work state.]
As for where the job growth has been, three sectors of the economy have grown faster than the energy sector, which alone added 40,500 net new jobs in 2010. Last year, Texas added 57,900 new jobs in trade, transportation, and utilities; a total of 53,400 jobs in professional and business services; and 44,900 net new jobs in the hospitality industry.
For each of the past seven years, CEOs polled by “Chief Executive” magazine have rated Texas first in the nation for economic development climate and job growth. What is the secret of Texas’s success? Rick Perry isn’t shy about his answer. “It’s all about four points,” he told me. “First, don’t spend all the money. Keep the taxes low and under control. Have regulations that are fair and predictable so business owners know what to expect from one quarter to the next. And reform the legal system so that frivolous lawsuits don’t paralyze employers who are trying to create real wealth.”
If there is on issue which Perry has made a personal crusade, it is lawsuit reform. Working with the legislature, he has helped pass curbs on frivolous lawsuits, implemented a first-in-the-nation system under which loser pays all court costs in many lawsuits, and reformed medical malpractice law.
Dick Weekley, the co-founder of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, says Perry showed genuine political courage in resisting calls for watered-down reforms that wouldn’t have addressed the core problem. He recalls that in 2002 Perry vetoed a bill strongly supported by doctors that would have required them to prompt payment from health maintenance organizations. In the eyes of the tort reform advocates, the bill was a Trojan Horse compromise negotiated between doctors and trial lawyers. “There was a huge response from physicians [against the veto],” Kim Ross, the former top lobbyist for the Texas Medical Association, said. TMA went so far as to endorse Tony Sanchez, Perry’s millionaire Democratic opponent in the 2002 election. “Perry sent a signal that he wanted real reform and would stand his ground,” Weekley told me. “Soon the medical lobbyists playing footsie with the trial lawyers were gone and the obstacles to real reform started falling.”………………..
AND now the TMA is endorsing Gov. Rick Perry. They understand now what he was doing would HELP them.
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Nov 22, 2011 The Best States For Jobs “The Texas jobs miracle has received a lot of attention since Rick Perry announced his candidacy for president in August. The numbers are impressive. Texas added 1.2 million net jobs since Perry took office as Texas Governor in December 2000, while the U.S. as a whole lost 1.1 million jobs during the same time.”
Texas offers a low tax, business friendly climate with a surging population that offers a nearly unlimited supply of young labor. Texas ranks sixth in our look at the Best States for Business and Careers. The state has aggressively courted companies to come to Texas to take advantage of these attributes. “Everyone is singing from the same hymn book at the Austin Chamber of Commerce,” says Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi.
Governor Perry sent letters to roughly 90 Washington State companies including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Starbucks last year when Washington was considering a tax increase on the state’s top earners. Perry wrote:
“As the State of Washington considers a multibillion-dollar tax increase for citizens and businesses … I invite you to consider your future in America’s new land of opportunity: the State of Texas,” Perry wrote. “If Washington doesn’t want your business, Texas does. Texas has no personal income tax and no interest in getting one.”
My son-in-law just relocated his business to Austin. To be closer to suppliers, and ease of shipping elsewhere. He designs and sells electronics equipment for the music industry. Means we have to travel farther to see our daughter and granddaughter, but they’re happy in Texas because Texas is doing things right.
This is mainly for two reasons: Computer tech companies continue to come to the Austin area...
We have a young and highly educated workforce and Austin has amenities such as good weather, a great natural environment and an outstanding nightlife, all of which attract highly educated young people who are likely not to have kids and are not a drag on the taxpayer.
When I recruit employees to work in Austin, I will show them the hill country, the lakes, Barton Springs, the greenbelt and downtown Austin at night.
In Austin, we can offer prospective employees 25%-33%less than they would in other cities and they take the job because they love Austin.
The quality of life here is one of the best in the country.