Houston didn't make this list - do you think this list is accurate or not? (Dallas: credit, job market)

[rigas]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

Laredo, McAllen and Brownsville don't belong on that list unless you speak Spanish. If you don't, you won't find much work in those areas. I'm near McAllen as I type this and lived in the area many years. Not only that, most of the jobs being created are retail or in call centers. Again, if you don't speak Spanish, forget retail. So, three cities on that list are B.S. right off the bat.

with spanish being the fastest growing language in the usa, and this being a jobs growth list i dont see how a language could cause a town to be "bs" on this list?

[texas7]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Good. The fewer lists we make during the home stretch of this recession, the better.

Agree!

[hsw]

These lists tend to be composed by moron journalists who don't understand basic business or economics

Not all jobs are created equal...during the Bubble, places like LV or FL had lots of new low-wage/low-skill jobs in tourism and construction...and low-wage/low-skill jobs are always at risk of being offshored or shipped to even cheaper locales...or disappearing in a recession

And many stagnant places like Austin or Boston always seem stable b/c of their many recession-resistant government, college and healthcare jobs, but are economically stagnant regions with very few new cos. (and minimal new wealth creation and new high-income jobs)

Even to an outside observor, it's common knowledge that Houston has some of energy industry's smartest entrepreneurs, executives, engineers and financiers...consider Centaurus, one of most respected energy hedge funds in world, started post-Enron by a 35yo now-billionaire...lots of new high-wage/high-skill jobs that revolve around Houston's energy industry talent pool

And many energy cos. in Dallas region are also started by entrepreneurs, e.g., XTO, which is being bought by Exxon for ~$40Bn

Exxon is HQ'd in Irving (and is a giant worth about as much as all of Houston's cos. combined) but only ~400 guys work in their modest HQ complex....lots of major Exxon execs are scattered around globe at major operations, incl Hou

[Kenpar]

Originally Posted by jfre81

Good. The fewer lists we make during the home stretch of this recession, the better.

Lol. That is exactly what I think when I read these lists. I haven't always been this way, but now that I see how many people are here I could care less who else comes.

Also, I don't think the list is rigged. All of these types of list are subject to major scrutiny. But, the towns shown seem to be smaller towns. And they are cities. And it can only be 10 cities. So there you go.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by rigas

with spanish being the fastest growing language in the usa, and this being a jobs growth list i dont see how a language could cause a town to be "bs" on this list?

Seeing that it's a list for people that want to move, I think the fact that most of the jobs being created in the Valley and Laredo needing Spanish speakers is pretty pertinent information to most, don't you think? Most people don't speak Spanish in this country. At least not good enough to get hired down there.

[rigas]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

Seeing that it's a list for people that want to move, I think the fact that most of the jobs being created in the Valley and Laredo needing Spanish speakers is pretty pertinent information to most, don't you think? Most people don't speak Spanish in this country. At least not good enough to get hired down there.

i dont agree at all. spanish is the 2nd most spoken language in the us, and the usa has the second largest population of spanish speakers in the world behind mexico. not to mention that spanish is the fastest growing language usage wise in the us.

th list is a "future jobs availability" list and not a "you can get this job IF" list. not to mention, spanish is only a $200 rosetta stone disk away from finding you a job as a conversationalist over the phone. hell i mean if habib can get a job talking to me every time my at&t wireless goes down all the while telling me his name is richard, then john can get a job with some broken spanish all the while calling himself juan.

[Kenpar]

Originally Posted by rigas

i dont agree at all. spanish is the 2nd most spoken language in the us, and the usa has the second largest population of spanish speakers in the world behind mexico. not to mention that spanish is the fastest growing language usage wise in the us.

th list is a "future jobs availability" list and not a "you can get this job IF" list. not to mention, spanish is only a $200 rosetta stone disk away from finding you a job as a conversationalist over the phone. hell i mean if habib can get a job talking to me every time my at&t wireless goes down all the while telling me his name is richard, then john can get a job with some broken spanish all the while calling himself juan.

I have that Rosetta Stone disk. And I use it. But, I haven't gotten that great at it. Dating mostly Hispanic women I can get a idea of what is going on in a conversation, but can't really tell exactly what is being said. I am working on it though. And Spanish isn't so bad.

I am definitely into learning languages. I am planning on learning at least 4. But, to be honest Spanish is not one of the languages I wanted to learn. I would love to get a job without needing to speak Spanish. There have been plenty of jobs I could have had to help me work my way through college, but I have to know Spanish. I can't find a job for that reason right now. My chances will go up once I finish college though.

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by rigas

i dont agree at all. spanish is the 2nd most spoken language in the us, and the usa has the second largest population of spanish speakers in the world behind mexico. not to mention that spanish is the fastest growing language usage wise in the us.

th list is a "future jobs availability" list and not a "you can get this job IF" list. not to mention, spanish is only a $200 rosetta stone disk away from finding you a job as a conversationalist over the phone. hell i mean if habib can get a job talking to me every time my at&t wireless goes down all the while telling me his name is richard, then john can get a job with some broken spanish all the while calling himself juan.

Well I've lived in the Valley before for many years. If you don't speak Spanish fluently, there are few opportunities. I think it would be only fair that the magazine would state this. You can't really compare the U.S. to any other conuntry when it comes to linguistics anyways as we place very limited emphasis on learning foreign languages. Habib probably speaks English better than a lot of high school graduates in this country.

[cheryjohns]

Originally Posted by rigas

if you notice, besides dallas, every other city on the list is a VERY small market. houston is not on the list because it seems to be based on % and while houston might gain a ton of jobs, the over all population is so large (and already employed for the most part) that it will not realistically grow as much as the cities on the list. considering texas grew at a ridiculous rate last year, the majority of the jobs would have been filled (texas added 478,000 residents between july 1 2008 and july 1 2009) so cities that have been producing jobs (houston, austin, san antonio) dont have the large room to fill like these smaller towns.

This makes total sense.

[EasilyAmused]

Originally Posted by crbcrbrgv

Well I've lived in the Valley before for many years. If you don't speak Spanish fluently, there are few opportunities. I think it would be only fair that the magazine would state this. You can't really compare the U.S. to any other conuntry when it comes to linguistics anyways as we place very limited emphasis on learning foreign languages. Habib probably speaks English better than a lot of high school graduates in this country.

What do you expect? Concerning Texas, when a school is considered excellent because it has taught kids to pass a TAKS test all year, there isn't much time for Language and Liberal Arts.

Tommy can fill in a bubble, but he can't write an essay anywhere near grade level.