[CatherineM]

How has anything made it better?

May God help us all.  

 

[Seamonkey]

I live in California, where voters seemed to be heading for mass suicide, tax wise..  thankfully I just volunteer my time and have two gigs that provide great satisfaction, flexibility, relevance AND training/education too.  there are jobs but it is expensive to live here (So Cal.. Orange County.)

 

[CatherineM]

I hate our so-called leaders.

Somebody will pay for this and it' won't be my kid.

 

[Scheherazade]

I'm looking in two places (Fayetteville, NC and Hampton Roads, VA)... I've been out of school probably 18 months now?  I haven't found anything.  I guess I should have listened when people said to take a major that will get you places rather than doing something you love.  The problem is I tried the former years ago and it didn't work either, plus I was miserable and hated going to classes because of it.  Oh well, something will come along.

Like I keep telling people, when there are reality competitions based on trying to get a job (and I'm not talking something swanky and life-changing like The Apprentice), you know something is wrong.

 

[_Sheila_]

I live just outside Las Vegas.  Things are starting to pick up here.  They are advertising jobs again.  Houses have started to sell again and the prices are starting to pick up.

It's not great yet, but it's better than it was.

Sheila

 

[Vegas_Asian]

I agree with Sheila. ^^^^ things are picking up. House prices are appArently going to make an incline.
Now if North Las Vegas City didn't go bankrupt last year.

As for jobs, depends on what you are looking at and who you know...at least that has been my experience here in Vegas

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[NogDog]

The IT sector here in the greater N.Y.C. area seems to be decent right now. I got my current job a bit over a year ago, and I know several people who switched jobs in the last half year or so for significant raises. However, I have no idea how other sectors of the job market are doing here.

 

[Guest]

Right now in the UK? Well I can only cover my area but I had two companies go under before I could start last year, and the recent job ads all seem to be harvesting CVs. The retail sector's not great in our area either - the highstreet's boarded up and since December we've lost our largest employers and a whole group of supporting businesses.

I wish certain people would pull their finger out, and get the budget fixed.

 

[JezStrider]

Only if you want to work in a grocery store for crap pay or at a factory for 80 hours a week until your mind and body give out.

 

[kindlequeen]

I live in the San Francisco Bay Area between San Francisco and San Jose (Silicon Valley), our primary employment for the area is the tech sector (software engineering, tech development - Google, Facebook, etc) but we still have a bit of the biotech industry holding on (most jobs were moved overseas when Roche bought Genentech).  Other employment (accounting, marketing, admin) is strong but most of those positions are utilized to run the big tech companies where all the 'real' money is.

The job market here is strong, hiring is up, and our population (and traffic!) is increasing rapidly.  I think we've got the most job growth in the country right now but unfortunately, we still have a lot of highly educated, highly qualified people who are out of work.  Companies are hiring people from overseas (I blame this on our education system) and I've seen an influx of people from out of state moving here for work.  I believe companies are hiring from out of area right now because it's cheaper. 

People coming from other parts of the US think they're getting a massive pay raise but we're the most expensive place to live in the US (outside of the city of Manhattan), so technically it's a pay cut and they're often downgrading their lifestyle but they really don't know it until after they've moved here.  They don't know what to negotiate because they can't calculate their living expenses realistically.  I've seen it happen so often since I've done professional relocation for Google, Sony, Nintendo, Ericsson, and Open Wave.  Very few people I've helped have been able to stay and only one family has been able to purchase a home here.

Our housing prices are up but inventory is low; average priced homes are getting bid up $100k and luxury areas are being bid up $500k with multiple offers more common than not and homes not lasting a week on the market.  We've seen an influx of all cash investors from China (they can't own land there) and I believe it's because we have the employment so investment properties are safe here. 

The taxes in CA have gone up but not as much as most think, a majority of the raise is actually old tax breaks expiring.  But hopefully with all these job increases we'll see more money flowing where it needs to go - supporting local businesses and mom and pop shops!

 

[Lee44]

A lot of well known companies are going under.  It always pains me to hear that.

 

[Justawriter]

The job market in massachusetts seems stronger than most of the rest of the country. Depends on what you do, but there are plenty of jobs in the tech and marketing areas, administrative seems to be picking up finally, which is usually a good indicator that everything else will follow. At least that's what we've seen happen in the past two recessions.

Interestingly, there's a new show starting right now called The Job, a reality show where people apply for work.

 

[mlewis78]

It's very bad in my field in NYC now (legal secy/word processing).  Law firms simply don't want to hire, even when they are doing very well.  I was laid off in Jan. 2009.  There was nothing in 2009, but in 2010-11 I did enough temp work to get by (3-4 days a week, which I thought at the time was not enough).

I had a full-time job from 8/11 - 4/12 (through a personal recommendation; not through agencies, my temp work nor online job boards), but I worked for a bully and it didn't work out.  There have been several listings online for jobs but there are far too few jobs for the number of applicants.  I keep applying, but I've had only one interview for a full-time position.  Last summer I was getting 1-2 days of temp work per week, but since the end of October, I've had one day of work (on the MLK Jr. holiday).  The temp work is always on last minute call to go in ASAP.  I met a temp from my agency on that Jan. assignment who has not had a full-time job since 2007!

 

[balaspa]

Sadly, no.  I have wanted to get out of my PR job at this tiny PR firm that barely pays me anything.  I have sent out dozens and dozens of resumes and had just about as many phone and face-to-face interviews.  Not a single job has come through.

 

[KindleGirl]

Haven't heard of many people in our area having any luck. Classified ads are pitiful these days. Seems I only hear of more people being laid off. They keep saying it is picking up, but I sure don't see it here.

 

[Brendan Carroll]

Jobs in Texas haven't been affected much (in my area, at least). With the on-going payments from Unemployment funds, the specialists can still afford to take a few weeks to shop around (electricians, plumbers, mechanics, etc.) If you aren't too picky, you can find a job in retail, food service and public service (State Jobs) pretty easily, especially if you are flexible as far as hours, moving, days off and salary. I don't know much about upper management jobs, but it seems construction in Houston, Austin and other populated areas is still going pretty strong. Those are construction jobs for blue-collar workers building businesses for other workers. So I guess we are in good shape around these parts.