Adviced on moving to CA?

[grapico]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

These are all from March 2009, the month with the most recent stats available.

Elkhart County, IN unemployment rate: 18.8%

Taylor County, TX (Abilene): 4.9%
El Paso County, TX (El Paso): 8.2%
Lubbock County, TX (Lubbock): 4.4%
Midland County, TX (Midland): 4.9%
Ector County, TX (Odessa): 6.2%
Tom Green County, TX (San Angelo): 5.6%
Brewster County, TX (Alpine): 4.3%
Howard County, TX (Big Spring) 6.6%

Hmmm, all of those West Texas counties are doing better than Elkhart......the Texas county with the highest unemployment rate is Starr County, which is in South Texas, with an unemployment rate of 16.4% which is still better than Elkhart.

North Dakota unemployment rate: 4.2%. ROFL

All compared with CA's which is 11.5%, which is still better than Elkhart.

Check your "facts", please.


To the OP, look into Solano County. Vallejo, Fairfield, Vacaville, etc. Smack dab between the SF Bay Area and Sacramento. Better than average unemployment rate (by CA standards), housing prices are in a free-fall, and you wouldn't be too far from things to do. It would most likely be a boring suburban living environment, but I'm sure at the very least would be a step up from Elkhart.

Good luck to you.

The thing with unemployment #'s is you have to look at what the unemployment #'s are in YOUR specific field. I work in IT and if I moved to North Dakota, I doubt there would be the jobs I could get hired for period. I know where I am at now I had to look for awhile, there might only be one legit job in a month that is even vaguely along my skill set, vs. in a higher unemployment area in a larger city, there are many, higher competition, but at least there is a chance. Even in this economy, I got both jobs I interviewed for soon as I applied and had to turn one down. Albeit they are somewhat related in the same industry... the fact remains, a job has NEVER came up for what I specialize in where I live now in the past 6 months. I do Oracle/SQL database stuff, a job these little counties just doesn't offer period. If I wanted to get a retail job or whatever jobs are making these places so low unemployment, they'd probably just have one look at my resume and say I was overqualified, and they have. I have *tried* to get jobs like working at a grocery store before, but nobody will hire you as they figure you are going to leave.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by grapico

The thing with unemployment #'s is you have to look at what the unemployment #'s are in YOUR specific field. I work in IT and if I moved to North Dakota, I doubt there would be the jobs I could get hired for period. I know where I am at now I had to look for awhile, there might only be one legit job in a month that is even vaguely along my skill set, vs. in a higher unemployment area in a larger city, there are many, higher competition, but at least there is a chance. Even in this economy, I got both jobs I interviewed for soon as I applied and had to turn one down. Albeit they are somewhat related in the same industry... the fact remains, a job has NEVER came up for what I specialize in where I live now in the past 6 months. I do Oracle/SQL database stuff, a job these little counties just doesn't offer period. If I wanted to get a retail job or whatever jobs are making these places so low unemployment, they'd probably just have one look at my resume and say I was overqualified, and they have. I have *tried* to get jobs like working at a grocery store before, but nobody will hire you as they figure you are going to leave.

Very good point, one needs to check into his/her field to determine the true rate. In some areas throughout the country it is the educated that are having problems, in other areas it is the unskilled laborers.

Nita

[David Aguilar]

Originally Posted by jc76

Thank You David for posting the FACTS! Many people tend to think i am BSing about Elkharts Unemployment rate, trust me I know well over 20 people just around me that are out of work, even the fast food places are not hiring. Luckily I saved all my money.
Vallejo has also been suggested by other people I know. As long as I can go to state parks and mountains to camp and hike I really dont need to live in a "happening" area. My main reason for moving is atmosphere and weather. I'm just burned out on flat humid locations filled with tons of bugs and nothing to do...and of course our long brutal winters.

You're welcome.

I saw a segment on CBS Evening News (Katie Couric) a few months ago regarding Elkhart's unemployment problems, so at least I knew about it. Obama even went there either right before the piece or right after.

At the moment I can't think of any places that are butted up against either a state/national park or mountains, that also have jobs and relative affordability.

You could take your chances in a small town like Bishop, Lone Pine, Big Pine, or even Ridgecrest. You'd have all the rec you'd want up that way. I used to live in Ridgecrest, and jobs are definitely hard to come by there (always, not just during recessions), but it's very cheap there (by CA standards) and within a few minutes or hours you can be off-roading, hiking, boating, skiing, biking, hunting, camping, fishing, etc. The "395 corridor" isn't what most people think of when they think "California", and the downsides are that it's incredibly hot during summer, and there aren't too many people around. The biggest city in that stretch from Ridgecrest to Bishop, is Ridgecrest, with only 25,000 people. Just another area to think about.

If you're interested, there is a series of posts (here on C-D) on Ridgecrest that I wrote a couple of years ago. I've eased up on the place quite a bit since then.

Originally Posted by grapico

The thing with unemployment #'s is you have to look at what the unemployment #'s are in YOUR specific field. I work in IT and if I moved to North Dakota, I doubt there would be the jobs I could get hired for period. I know where I am at now I had to look for awhile, there might only be one legit job in a month that is even vaguely along my skill set, vs. in a higher unemployment area in a larger city, there are many, higher competition, but at least there is a chance. Even in this economy, I got both jobs I interviewed for soon as I applied and had to turn one down. Albeit they are somewhat related in the same industry... the fact remains, a job has NEVER came up for what I specialize in where I live now in the past 6 months. I do Oracle/SQL database stuff, a job these little counties just doesn't offer period. If I wanted to get a retail job or whatever jobs are making these places so low unemployment, they'd probably just have one look at my resume and say I was overqualified, and they have. I have *tried* to get jobs like working at a grocery store before, but nobody will hire you as they figure you are going to leave.

Agreed. I think unemployment rates should be compared and contrasted with an area's population to really gauge how many jobs would be available in a place. Those numbers I provided were mainly to dispel the other person's claims. A person in your field wouldn't move to Alpine, TX, and expect to get a job in your field.

The BLS also compiles statistics regarding unemployment rates in particular fields, in case you ever get really really bored.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Agreed. I think unemployment rates should be compared and contrasted with an area's population to really gauge how many jobs would be available in a place. Those numbers I provided were mainly to dispel the other person's claims. A person in your field wouldn't move to Alpine, TX, and expect to get a job in your field.

The BLS also compiles statistics regarding unemployment rates in particular fields, in case you ever get really really bored.

Yeah I am working *for* a Data Center... just happens to be the job was located here (because they can pay a lot less here as they leech off recent grads for the salaries and happen to have an office for other parts of their operations)...very lucky in getting it though, the server farms I am over are in different cities. Usually this would not be the case, and for most companies this job position would definitely not be here. Technically I am working remotely and the people I generally work with are actually in Tampa and Miami. If I were to stay, and eventually get promoted, I would have to relocate to one of those cities anyway. For what I used to do... there really aren't any jobs period here for it, I've yet to see one posted in 6 months, the ones that were posted on dice etc... are actually just posted here, but for other cities! Also the salary here is about half of what the salary in say, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas would pay for same position... Why? Because they can. I'm back to working entry level IT stuff, the same stuff I did 10 years ago out of h.s. when I was going to school. Why? That is all there is here.
The same reason the only "whole foods like" store here can charge astronomical prices, because it is the only one here, no competition. Just economics. Small cities generally don't have many good paying jobs unless you have a grandfathered in business, work in law, a doctor at the hospital, etc.

[David Aguilar]

So, where are you now?

[jc76]

Originally Posted by nmnita

Very good point, one needs to check into his/her field to determine the true rate. In some areas throughout the country it is the educated that are having problems, in other areas it is the unskilled laborers.

Nita

Ok ok ok, let me tell you WHY our city does in fact have the highest unemployment rate in the U.S.
We used to be the RV production capital of the U.S...now I believe Texas is, anyway, when the economy started to crash a couple years ago and the gas prices went up into the $4+ range people pretty much stopped buying new RV's. That killed our town, period. RV mfg was over 50% of our livelyhood and education around here is NOT promoted so none of these out of work factory workers have the options that many of you have. They were never taught the importance of college education because frankly around here at one time you did not need it.
Today is a whole new world and education is finally being taught as a neccesity and not a luxury. Still we got tons on unemployment and when the well runs dry it's gonna get ugly around here.
This is all irrelavant to my posting but it seems this is where the topic headed. So that's an idea of my surroundings, it's not pretty, it's not "fancy" and I live in it and interact with this community so if your sitting 2000 miles away and trying to correct me on what's going on in my state/town I think your a bit bias. Just wanted to clear that up.
PS- I don't know why I used the above quote, sorry, I think I quoted the wrong poster