Where you workdecides where you live.
Austin’s big employers sit in clusters, from Taylor to Southeast Austin. Here’s who employs the most people, who wants you in the office, and which areas make the drive easy.
Big employers,spread across the map.
Jobs are spread across the region, not stacked downtown. Tech makes the headlines, but healthcare, chips and government keep the base broad. Oracle, Dell and Tesla all cut jobs in 2025–26, so check a company’s recent news.
- Tesla — about 16,500; Giga Texas in Southeast Austin (SH 130 at SH 71)
- Amazon — about 11,000; Domain-area offices plus warehouses across the metro
- Apple — about 10,000; Northwest Austin campus on Parmer Lane
- Dell — about 7,300; headquarters in Round Rock
- IBM — about 6,000; North Austin, near the Domain
- Oracle, Google, Meta — about 2,500, 2,000 and 1,500; downtown and on Lady Bird Lake
- Samsung Austin — about 4,500 direct jobs; Parmer Lane in Northeast Austin
- Samsung Taylor — new 2nm fab; trial production began Sept 2026, mass production planned for 2027
- Applied Materials — about 4,150; Northeast Austin
- AMD — about 4,100; Southwest Austin
- NXP — about 4,000; fabs in Oak Hill (Southwest) and East Austin
- Ascension Seton — about 16,200; Dell Seton Medical Center downtown, plus Round Rock and Kyle
- St. David’s HealthCare — about 13,300; hospitals in Central, North and South Austin, Round Rock and Georgetown
- Baylor Scott & White — about 6,000; Round Rock, Cedar Park, Lakeway and Pflugerville
- UT Dell Medical Center — new hospital near the Domain, opening planned for 2030
- Healthcare and social assistance — about 143,000 jobs metro-wide
- State of Texas — agencies around the Capitol; about 84,000 state government jobs metro-wide, including UT
- UT Austin — 4,693 faculty (Fall 2025) plus a large staff; central campus
- School districts — Austin ISD has about 10,800 staff; Round Rock, Leander, Pflugerville and others add thousands more
- Local government — about 103,000 jobs across cities, counties and schools
Sources: Austin Business Journal, Largest Employers by local employees (July 2026); Samsung Austin Semiconductor (June 2026); UT Austin (Fall 2025); Austin ISD (2025–26); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics (Aug 2026); Opportunity Austin; Statesman (2026). Headcounts are approximate. Logos are trademarks of their respective owners and do not imply endorsement.
Remote is fading.The commute matters again.
Several of Austin’s largest employers now expect five days in the office. Policies change often — confirm with your manager before you choose a far suburb.
Five days in the office since March 2025 for employees who live within about an hour of a Dell site. Staff who live farther away can stay remote.
Five days on-site for U.S. semiconductor staff since July 2025, with attendance tracking.
On-site, full-time. Most Austin roles are factory and engineering jobs at Giga Texas, and office staff have been expected in 40 hours a week since 2022.
Corporate employees returned to the office five days a week in January 2025.
Hybrid, with at least three office days a week. Some teams ask for more.
Hybrid, three days a week. Google began moving staff into its downtown Sail Tower in early 2026.
Match the areato the office.
The shortest commute usually means living in the same part of the metro as your job. These pairings are where most employees of each hub tend to live.
Rough weekday rush-hour ranges from inside the paired areas. Door-to-door times vary by street and hour; crossing town (for example, Round Rock to downtown on I-35) can take 35–55 minutes at peak.
Know the tolls.Time the rush.
Austin leans on a handful of highways, and several of the fastest routes are toll roads.
- MoPac Express Lane — priced by traffic in real time; cheapest off-peak
- 183A — Leander and Cedar Park to the Domain area
- US 183 North express lanes — fully open since Feb 2026, SH 45 to MoPac
- SH 45 — east–west link across the north suburbs
- SH 130 — the eastern I-35 bypass, Georgetown past Tesla; 85 mph on its southern end
- TxTag — tag rates run about a third lower than pay-by-mail
- Mornings 7–9:30 a.m.; worst 7:30–8:30
- Evenings 4:30–7 p.m.; worst 5–6
- Tuesday to Thursday are heaviest; Monday and Friday are lighter
- Pinch points — I-35 through downtown, MoPac between Slaughter Lane and Ben White
- I-35 Capital Express North and South — completion planned around 2028
- I-35 Capital Express Central — lowered lanes and new bridges downtown, through about 2033
- Night and weekend closures are common — check TxDOT’s My35 before you drive
- Light rail phase 1 — construction from 2027, service planned for 2033
Lower pay.Lower prices.
Median pay in Austin trails San Francisco and New York for most jobs. Prices are lower, and there’s no state income tax. Here’s the raw comparison.
Metro-area medians: San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont and New York–Newark–Jersey City. Price level is BEA’s all-items index. General information, not an offer benchmark.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025); BEA Regional Price Parities (2024, released Dec 2025); Tax Foundation (2026); NYC Department of Finance.
Where the math works,and where it doesn’t.
Whether Austin puts you ahead depends on your job and your pay. Run your own numbers in our cost-of-living calculator.
Adjusted for local prices, Austin’s $134K median buys about what $158K buys in San Francisco, where the median is $187K. No state income tax narrows the gap further.
Austin’s median nurse pay is about half the San Francisco median, and teachers earn about a third less than in New York. Even after lower prices, that’s a real cut — compare the offer, not just the prices.
Prices across the Austin metro run about 15% below the Bay Area and 13% below the New York metro. Keep a coastal salary and the math clearly favors Austin.
The typical Austin home is valued at about $497K, vs. $1.43M in San Francisco and $823K in New York City. Property tax is higher here, so include it in your math.
Sources: BLS OEWS (May 2025); BEA Regional Price Parities (2024); Zillow Home Value Index, city level (Aug 2026). Illustrative; not financial advice — ask your lender or CPA.
What locals knowabout the daily drive.
Melissa Jung, REALTOR®Small choices about location add up to hours every week.
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