Austin is one of only a few major apartment markets nationwide where total employment is nearly fully recovered. As of June 2021, total employment in Austin ran just 5,400 jobs shy of its pre-pandemic total. The only other two major apartment markets that outpace this recovery are Salt Lake City, where total employment has already surpassed its February 2020 rate, and in Kansas City, where total employment is less than 1,000 jobs shy of its pre-pandemic total. Back in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession began, total employment in Austin was just shy of 1.15 million jobs. After severe cuts in the following months, total employment bottomed out at 1.005 million in April 2020. The market began to regain jobs again starting in May 2020 and has been slowly recovering the employment base since.
