Is a good economy good for everyone? Local businesses large and small cope with tight labor market

The Austin economy has been on a sustained hot streak, but economists say it may cool off in 2020.

According to data from the Texas Workforce Commission, unemployment in Austin dipped below 3% in January 2019 and has stayed there since. Michael Sury, a finance lecturer at The University of Texas McCombs School of Business, said that tight market means businesses are not able to hire workers and expand.

Sury said a potential tick up in unemployment in 2020 is more of a course correction than reason for concern.

“What we’re talking about is a slowing in the rate of change of growth, not an actual recession in the economy,” he said.

While the challenges are the same—rising rents and difficulty hiring—the economy has affected local small businesses differently than it has impacted large ones.

Read the perspective from both sides in Community Impact Newspaper's January cover story.

As rents rise and labor costs increase, Austin's small business owners are adopting creative business strategies

For large tech firms in Austin, apprenticeships and educational training provide alternative approaches to eliminate the skills gap