“The national economy is going down, and Idaho’s economy is going down with it" (Boise: maintenance)

[YanquiUXO]

5:09 p.m. -- Idaho economy, employment slowing | News Updates | Idaho Statesman (broken link)

“The national economy is going down, and Idaho’s economy is going down with it, said Don Holley, a professor of economics at Boise State University.

Not good news for our already tight and insular economy. And with home construction and sales stagnating, gas prices soaring, and our wages (already low by most standards), I am starting to get a little scared.

With luck it won't hit us as hard here. But that depends almost entirely on the fate and fortune of Micron, HP, and the tech industry. Has anyone heard anything from the rumor mill on this front?

[2much2soon]

As I understand, HP is doing stealth mode layoffs. No big announcement of numbers but people are being let go. I haven't seen anyone that I work with directly go yet, however.
As far as residential construction and Micron, they are both boom and bust propositions. This is what you get.
I think a lot of construction workers came in here to build houses that had no business being built in the first place. Not the worker's fault, but thats just how it is.
I made the rounds of several pawn shops in the last month looking for vintage stereo gear. There were construction workers pawning their tools every time I went in to a pawnshop.
I know people are still filtering out of Micron, its just not making headlines.

[Sage of Sagle]

Could also be regionalized even within Idaho. Custom home builder are as busy as ever in Sandpoint (NID) and construction industry wages are still high here. We just worked for a month to find a tile guy willing to work for under $8K/month. So the resort communities will have a different impact that others...I wonder how the Sun Valley area is doing?

[winger17]

yanq, the construction side here in so. cali is also slow, we have lots of contractors looking for work I'm a inspector here and I've noticed the drop off in inspection requests. does the manufacturing businesses there hire maintainance workers very often. how about the school district or city?

[YanquiUXO]

From what I know the manufacturing industry here is probably the area's strongest industry.

The schools and city have notoriously tight hiring, but it depends on what school you're looking at. We're building quite a few new schools and you may catch a job if your timing is right. I say this with the caveat that I'm talking primarily of teaching jobs - I'm not sure at all what the market for maintenance is in our schools.

Have you researched the wages here? Be prepared to take a hit. Expect to find a job in the 25,000 - 35,000 range, and you'll be doing well.

I recommend talking to people. Statistics may say one thing, but I find they're pretty meaningless without context. People here just don't make much in general, though some industries do pay better than others.

This site is a good resource for talking to people, but certainly don't let it be a be-all-end-all to your search. All it can do is offer a very limited set of perspectives on an area, and those perspectives may be entirely different from your own, should you come.