The Central Texas unemployment rate dipped a little in September, falling to 6.8%.
The Texas Workforce Commission says the government, education and health services sector added the most jobs in the Austin area last month. But unemployment is still a subject of deep concern for the Austin metro area.
“I think that what we’re seeing in unemployment is that we still have over 60,000 people out of work. So the job growth is definitely a positive sign. It shows that we’re going in the right direction. But it also shows we’ve got a lot of work to do. There’s still got a lot of people out of work,” said spokesperson Weston Sythoff with Texas Workforce Solutions.
The leisure and hospitality sector added jobs for an eighth straight month, but Sythoff admits some of those positions are what he called “survival jobs,” keeping people employed until they can find a higher-paying job.
Statewide, the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1%
