Job market in Dallas? (Howe: construction, income, taxes)

[NotEnufMinerals]

Dallas is (and has been) booming economically...wondering what industries in particular are growing there and in need of workers?

[tmtex]

IT = hot

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by tmtex

IT = hot

Depends on what your specialty is, how low of a wage you're willing to accept, how long you're willing to toil on contract while they dangle full-time employment in front of you, your gender, your nationality (Indian is clearly preferred), etc.


Construction is white hot.

[DFWUser1]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Depends on what your specialty is, how low of a wage you're willing to accept, how long you're willing to toil on contract while they dangle full-time employment in front of you, your gender, your nationality (Indian is clearly preferred), etc.


Construction is white hot.

In addition to nationality, you forgot to mention that H1B or L1B or some other B is a pre-qualification as well, more than the job skills itself.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by DFWUser1

In addition to nationality, you forgot to mention that H1B or L1B or some other B is a pre-qualification as well, more than the job skills itself.

Or OPT...that's a 15.3% discount for the employer since they don't have to pay FICA taxes.

[NTXPerson]

Architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) are booming with the amount of development going on in DFW. There's so much work on there right now, the AEC firms are having to be selective on what they pursue. Plus, they are struggling to find people to hire because everyone is hiring.

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by NTXPerson

Architecture, engineering, and construction (A/E/C) are booming with the amount of development going on in DFW. There's so much work on there right now, the AEC firms are having to be selective on what they pursue. Plus, they are struggling to find people to hire because everyone is hiring.

Yup.

We have had open recs for like 2 years - cannot find the right people because the only people without work seem to be unemployed for a reason and the good ones who are employed want a lot of money to jump ship from a current role (understandably) or get multiple competing offers that are hard to compete with.

[NotEnufMinerals]

Originally Posted by Sunbather

Yup.

We have had open recs for like 2 years - cannot find the right people because the only people without work seem to be unemployed for a reason and the good ones who are employed want a lot of money to jump ship from a current role (understandably) or get multiple competing offers that are hard to compete with.

i'm guessing these are not entry level jobs, right? you need experienced workers?

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Or OPT...that's a 15.3% discount for the employer since they don't have to pay FICA taxes.

Yeah. There is such a huge abuse of the immigration system by employers.

The whole system blows. It gets abused on both ends of the income spectrum.

On the top, to drive down wages and avoid FICA. "Don't have enough skilled workers" yeah, no, only not at the wages you want to pay.

On the bottom end to keep day labourers working, but outside the system as a perpetual underclass of illegal workers who won't/can't complain about bad conditions and who they also don't pay FICA.

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by NotEnufMinerals

i'm guessing these are not entry level jobs, right? you need experienced workers?

Yes, it is harder to find experienced workers who are a good fit for the company. We are in a 'would like to have' and not a 'need to have' position for an extra Sr level engineer in my department. We don't just want a body, we need the right person. Otherwise it is not worth the pay + time to train them etc. It'll happen but it can be slow. When they hired me almost 4 years ago, they had been in the same position for about a year until I accepted my role: they were aggressive then - the best offer out of 4 simultaneous offers for me. We've hired a few more entry level people over the last couple years and now would like another Sr level to balance things out and we just aren't finding them.

However, this was one of the deciding factors when choosing what city to move to when I was looking for a change: I saw Dallas as a place where I would always be able to find work in my field unless the economy as a whole was just tanking hard, in which case most people are in trouble.