According to national job numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, all but one of the 50 largest metros in the U.S. had negative job growth year over year in February, with the exception of Austin. As unemployment rates across the country continue to rise, the Greater Austin MSA is the only large metro to see positive job growth. Austin continues to buck the trends that are plaguing cities across the country.

“Relative good news is that Austin MSA is the No. 1 large metro in February 2009 in year over year job growth with a net 1,300 jobs. The sad news is the No. 2 was minus 800 jobs year over year and the No. 10 was minus 19,000,” said Mike Rollins, President, Austin Chamber of Commerce. “When Opportunity Austin set out to implement its economic development strategies 5 plus years ago it was for this very reason…to mitigate Austin in down cycles.”

The rates of job loss in San Antonio, Houston, Fort Worth and Dallas are still moderate enough for them to remain among the nation’s top 10 performing metros.

Year-over-year, Texas job numbers declined for the first time since the current recession took hold of the country, with February’s numbers showing a loss of 73,000 a jobs or a 0.7% decrease. Austin was the only large Texas metro that continued to add jobs. Eleven smaller Texas metro areas still saw growth, adding 11,800 jobs with the top three performers for both net new jobs and rate of growth being Odessa, Midland and Killeen.

If the same ranking were to utilize the 100 largest metros, only six metros would show growth between February 2008 and February 2009. In this ranking, Austin’s growth would be narrowly outpaced by Oklahoma City, Baton Rouge, Wichita and Bethesda, with New Orleans following Austin as the only other metros with net job growth.

As unemployment rates have climbed across the country, February estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Austin and other Texas metros remaining among the best performing metros. Although Austin’s top 10 ranking was speculated to be in jeopardy when January’s rate was reported at 6.4%, we remain just behind San Antonio as one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

Opportunity Austin, the economic development initiative of the Austin Chamber of Commerce, has played a key role in the continued success of continued job growth within the Austin MSA. The first phase of Opportunity Austin registered solid success adding more than 121,800 new jobs to Austin’s regional economy and increasing regional payroll by $5.9 billion.

With Opportunity Austin, business leaders in Central Texas are reinforcing their steadfast commitment to improving the area’s work force, quality of life and business climate through aggressive, proactive programming. Opportunity Austin 2.0 aims to add 117,000 new jobs and $10.8 billion in payroll to the region.