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Austin Unemployment Ticks Higher, Texas Rate Unchanged

Austin added 3,900 jobs last month, mostly in the leisure and hospitality sector.
Photo by Liang Shi for KUT News
Austin added 3,900 jobs last month, mostly in the leisure and hospitality sector.

More people have jobs in Austin, but 6.7 percent of those actively looking for work are still unemployed. Lisa Givens from the Texas Workforce Commission says Austin added 3,900 jobs last month. Despite this, the unemployment rate rose slight slightly from 6.5 percent in April to 6.7 percent, a result of more people looking for work. In Texas, the unemployment rate stayed the same as it was in April at eight percent. But that's below the national average of 9.1 percent. A total of 8,800 jobs were created in May for the state, Givens said.

Some of the jobs sectors in Austin that increased employment were the mining, logging and construction sector. with 1,200 newly added jobs. The leisure and hospitality sector added 1,500.

However, the government sector in Austin was down by 100 jobs while the trade, transportation and utilities sector lost 1,000.

Kristen Cabrera is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, where she saw snow for the first time and walked a mile through a blizzard. A native of the Rio Grande Valley, she graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American (now UTRGV) and is a former KUT News intern. She has been working as a freelance audio producer, writer and podcaster. Email her: kcabrera@kut.org