Austin Out-Employs Dallas for Young Professionals. Is Day-Drinking Now Considered 'A Career'?

Austin Out-Employs Dallas for Young Professionals. Is Day-Drinking Now Considered "A Career"?

By Jamie Laughlin Tue., Jul. 17 2012 at 1:11 PM

Austin's future Young Professionals. We're doing something wrong.

Forbes posted its list of Top 15 Cities for Young Professionals this month, and Dallas didn't make the cut. The rankings took job growth, employment rate, cost of living and median income into account, so it feels counterintuitive that Austin holds seat number 11 while Dallas warms the bench.

Known more as a place with rich social opportunities than a city where a college graduate can find a decent career, Austin's placement on this list baffles me. But it's easy to stay current with costs of living when you have no rent (couch surfing), get paid in cash at the bar (suck it, taxes!) and can happily sustain yourself on 88-cent tacos from Tamale House (damn, those tacos are delicious).

Actually, none of that sounds terrible. The real question is who wants to live in Des Moines, Iowa?

Here's the full list:

15. Fairfield County, Conn.
14. Little Rock, Ark
13. Greenville, S.C.
12. Boston, Mass
11. Austin, TX
10. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.
9. Washington D.C.
8. Colorado Springs, Co
7. Denver, Co
6. Portland, Maine
5. Omaha, Neb
4. Salt Lake City, Utah
3. Madison, Wis
2. Raleigh, N.C.
1. Des Moines, Iowa

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Jason Frank

i love dallas - wrote a song about it - here it goes - http://soundcloud.com/onestepprogram/im-in-dallas

wd-40

In the words of Deep Eddy, please day-drink responsibly.

Ricky Hollywood

I am a huge supporter of day drinking on Sunday Funday. Brunch is the best.

Blake Wilson

In Austin it's an institution; let them stay down there and pickle themselves in Neverland.

Jamie L.

Good question. As a former Austin Day Drinker, I never did. But I'm not sure that I always knew it was, or wasn't Sunday either.

Steve

So, do people who use the term "Day drinking" also say "Sunday fun day?"

Zizi JeanMer

Boston would be tolerable. The rest... meh.

Jamie L.

That's why it's surprising. Everyone sticks around after college and Austin is overpopulated. You wind up knowing tons of people with Master's degrees who are decorating cakes at Whole Foods. My assumption is that the underemployed aren't represented and the high-earning tech folks balance the remaining scales.