Current Job Market (Albuquerque: sales, 2009, apartment)

[Sonic09]

Does anyone know how the current job market in Albuquerque is doing? May move back down to this great town, and am looking for information prior to coming??

[veggggies]

I think it really depends on your line of work.

[yukon]

Hard to say without knowing what field you're in.

My coworker owns an automotive related repair business and they laid off people this morning. We have clients also in the same industry, and they're laying off. Anything to do with, or supporting, car dealerships and used car sales is not doing too well here right now. Too many lenders aren't lending, so what buyers are out there are finding it hard to get financing.

Some of our other clients in more professional service businesses seemed to do ok last year, although I won't see any 2009 figures until mid-year. Some of our smaller realtor clients also seem to be doing OK. We have a couple of construction clients who saw the handwriting on the wall early on and made the switch to commercial construction, they're doing good. The residential construction clients obviously aren't doing quite as well. Some of the smaller guys have gone under.

Our business is down even, although we think it's more a case of being delayed as clients don't want to fund retirement plans just yet (they have until the filing date of the tax return - extend the return, you pay the retirement later in the year). ABQ isn't as bad as some areas, but businesses are starting to feel it here.

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

Originally Posted by yukon

ABQ isn't as bad as some areas, but businesses are starting to feel it here.

Here in Baltimore, I went out for lunch yesterday only to discover that not one but two of my lunch spots closed in the same week - one by fire. I had to eat Wendy's.

I'm wondering if the same things are happening in ABQ. Has anyone noticed the closing of businesses they patronize frequently? This sort of talk seems to be buzzing up and down the east coast. Is anything burning?

I'm reminded of the fires in New York that raged daily in the late 1970's from landlords torching their buildings for insurance money. There seem to be a lot of apartment fires in Baltimore so far this year (including mine), so maybe I'm just extra alarmed.

Beginning to feel like a decaying East Coast city is no place to spend a recession.

[yukon]

None of my regularly visited restaurants have closed, but I have noticed a good bit of small businesses have closed since Christmas (dark storefronts). A lot of car dealerships appear to have closed as well.

[infragrrl]

I'm in the IT field and the job market is absolutely dreadful here. Many, many more prospects in Denver as there are quite a few tech companies and tech oriented businesses as compared to ABQ.

[mortimer]

infragrrl informed:

> I'm in the IT field and the job market is absolutely dreadful here.
> Many, many more prospects in Denver ...

Would you say it is two or three times better there than in Albuquerque?

If so, I would be careful about pronouncing it so much better.

Denver is about 2 1/2 times the size of Albuquerque, so you would
expect to see about 2 1/2 times the employment possibilities.

The thing is that no matter where you live in Albuquerque, you can
commute to anywhere else in Albuquerque.

In Denver, if you live in Englewood, you wouldn't, in your worst dreams,
want a commute from there to Broomfield. OK, maybe you would, but
I wouldn't waste my life doing that commute.

I imagine the pay scales are higher there.

[vegaspilgrim]

Originally Posted by infragrrl

I'm in the IT field and the job market is absolutely dreadful here. Many, many more prospects in Denver as there are quite a few tech companies and tech oriented businesses as compared to ABQ.

And yet you go on the Denver forum and you read posters like Dtown 720 who say they haven't been able to find any jobs in IT in months. In fact the people I read on the Denver forum with the single greatest job market difficulties are the IT guys.

[dpgtfc]

Originally Posted by vegaspilgrim

And yet you go on the Denver forum and you read posters like Dtown 720 who say they haven't been able to find any jobs in IT in months. In fact the people I read on the Denver forum with the single greatest job market difficulties are the IT guys.

I frequent several cities/state forums here and gotta say it is everywhere. I am in IT, but I have it a bit worse, actually. I just graduated in May, and while I have experience in my "field" of IT, it is a part-time, extended internship type of thing. Looks better than nothing, but can't be said to be 3 years experience even though that is how long I've worked here.

So I am essentially 'entry level' in a field flooded with people having 5+ years experience looking for every and any job in the tech field. Thankfully my wife is a Physical Therapist and can still find work. (One such job is actually in ABQ, and this news depresses me even more)

[mortimer]

vegaspilgrim mentioned:

> ... on the Denver forum and you read posters ... haven't been able to
> find any jobs in IT in months. ... single greatest job market difficulties
> are the IT ...

It's all relative. If the job market is 3x bigger, the pool of "availables"
is also probably 3x bigger.

For all one knows, it might be far easier to get a job in Minot because
there might only be one other person looking for (IT work) there, but
there are two whole open positions.