Looking for a job in Austin, Texas? who isn't! the unemployment rate here was hovering around 8.2% before the Holiday season, and like many areas of the country needs some serious help. What is there to do in times like this but hunker down and wait until some magic job appears? Oh, wait... that is the opposite of what the unemployed in Austin should be doing. If you are looking for work - don't give up. Keep looking and applying - every single day.

A good rule of thumb is to submit as many resumes per day as years you worked at your last job. Let's say you worked with an employer for 5 years and you were recently laid off... every day you should be submitting 5 different resumes to 5 different places. Easy, right? This is a time when more is better so if you can do more than this, by all means - do, but rarely should it be less.

Need some resources? Craigslist, AustinJobs.com, and Monster are a great start, but, your best bet is to use your friends, old coworkers, and family to find work. Tell everyone you know that you are looking and ready - you will be surprised at how fast word gets around that your skills are available. This "networking" way for employment is also the easiest because you are probably going to be talking to these people at some point anyway!

Whatever you do - don't give up hope. You will find that perfect job (without settling) - you just have to have a little faith. You don't even have to wish upon a lone star - but it couldn't hurt.