wages vs housing costs? (Knoxville, Maryville: jobs, college, subdivision)

[sthepoet]

are the wages in Tennessee good? Do they compare to the price you pay per month for your basic house payment? What is a typical( no college) person make per hour? hope this gives a variety of jobs, pay and housing payments.....

[mbmouse]

This is going to vary A LOT depending on what area/city/town in TN you are asking about. That info might help you get better answers.

[sthepoet]

speaking east tn only, preferrably the counties of sevier, blount, jefferson and cocke. any and all info greatly appreciated.

[john t]

Sevier relies mostly on retail tourist trade so no good jobs there. Blount has some industry but nothing really booming at the moment. Cocke has never had much going on that I know of, lots of poverty and scary places. A good job without college is only going to pay $8-10 hr. Many jobs in these areas are going to pay even less. There are jobs here but dont expect good pay.

To answer your question, you can probably find a job and probably make a house payment, people do it here like they do it everywhere.

So much will depend on your work experience and what you want to do. There are a lot of temp type jobs around around, answering phones can pay $8-9 hr. Retail work in many stores will pay $7-9 hr. If you have any specific skills or trade you can make a bit more.

I know someone who is a front end manager at Home Depot with 2 years experience who is only making $10.75 hr. I know another guy who was offered a job there in a department for $13 hr, problem is he has 25 years experience as an electrican and was making double that before.

If you are ambitious you can come in with an idea and compete with the natives. Sales can be good, if you can sell.

I'm sorry I can't paint you a rosy picture, maybe someone here can.

Best of luck to you.

[Catsndogs]

John t gave an excellent overview from what we have experienced here. Also, lots of people work overtime to make extra or to make ends meet. They take advantage of surges in work and work all they can to make up for the slumps. You really have to retrain your spending habits...eventually it all gets easier. People shop bargains big time in food too. I think it is slowly evolving in Maryville...with the rapid commercial building that has been going on. jmho

[knoxgarden]

Originally Posted by sthepoet

are the wages in Tennessee good? Do they compare to the price you pay per month for your basic house payment? What is a typical( no college) person make per hour? hope this gives a variety of jobs, pay and housing payments.....

It depends on what you do. There's a lot of industry around and pay is good for manual labor. Look in Forks of the River where there's a huge industrial complex. Truckers are always in demand. Many companies will pay you to train to get a CDL.
Industrial/manufacturing jobs usually start at $10 an hour for those with no experience and go way up. I know a lot of blue collar workers who are doing extremely well.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by knoxgarden

It depends on what you do. There's a lot of industry around and pay is good for manual labor. Look in Forks of the River where there's a huge industrial complex. Truckers are always in demand. Many companies will pay you to train to get a CDL.
Industrial/manufacturing jobs usually start at $10 an hour for those with no experience and go way up. I know a lot of blue collar workers who are doing extremely well.

I agree completely. I know a lot of people around here who have blue collar jobs and are living very well. All the new housing construction you see going on isn't exclusively for wealthy retirees. There's clearly money to be made here. Being an honest government employee, I'll never see any of that money. But there's definitely a lot of people around here who are reaping the financial benefits of hard work and solid work ethics.

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by sthepoet

speaking east tn only, preferrably the counties of sevier, blount, jefferson and cocke. any and all info greatly appreciated.

What I personally see with these counties you are speaking of is one or the other. There are a lot of factory type jobs in commutable or in Jefferson and Cocke Counties. Many industrial parks with large manufacturing plants. In these factories there are basically two different types of employees, factory line workers and the professionals (Plant managers, IT, Engineers etc.) the professionals make the 40K and over (up to the 100k range in some plants) salaries and the factory workers are lucky to make 20K a year. However, there are some factory workers who make the 40K or so a year because they work 3rd shift, over time and/or weekends/holidays.
I believe that is why you will see a 70K home next to a 300k house in a lot of these areas. You also don't see a lot of expensive subdivisions going up in these counties unless they are by a body of water unlike Knoxville that is experiencing the developments popping up anywhere they can cram them in but this is where there are more types of employment available.
I agree Sevierville is primarily tourist dollar supported employment.

[Catsndogs]

Interesting the way it works and we can relate, however, to add to the part about the guy who works the third shift in a factory...a lot of those people work an Additional Job.

Also, to add to what the past few clips are saying about good money to be made here in blue collar ...people from other areas coming here who have training, skills and long careers in HVAC, ELECTRONICS, AUTO MECHANICS for instance (all of whom have been systematically trained in those fields)...beyond on the job training...some have gone to trade schools as well, some got training in the service. These people have a harder time finding the right slot...particularly the older they are. Entry level is a different story. But if you have someone that has been an air conditioning specialist...going to an industrial or construction job is not easy unless he is pretty young and can transition with less skill in a particular area.

[pdq]

Originally Posted by Catsndogs

Interesting the way it works and we can relate, however, to add to the part about the guy who works the third shift in a factory...a lot of those people work an Additional Job.

Also, to add to what the past few clips are saying about good money to be made here in blue collar ...people from other areas coming here who have training, skills and long careers in HVAC, ELECTRONICS, AUTO MECHANICS for instance (all of whom have been systematically trained in those fields)...beyond on the job training...some have gone to trade schools as well, some got training in the service. These people have a harder time finding the right slot...particularly the older they are. Entry level is a different story. But if you have someone that has been an air conditioning specialist...going to an industrial or construction job is not easy unless he is pretty young and can transition with less skill in a particular area.

Very true. I guess there can be money in blue collar anywhere, but the outsiders in blue collar are going to have a much more difficult time finding good work here. There is a good ole boy network that likes to feed itself, not some yankee or sunbelter. I personally would hire the one who was the most qualified.

The real problem is that the most qualified usually require the most pay and thus the real problem with Knoxville. There's no way I can pay the best and brightest what they truly deserve. This is not Nashville or Atlanta or Charlotte. That's why we loose so many to "bright flight". The brightest are going other places. I lost my best employee this summer to GA. I just couldn't pay them what they were worth. I didn't have a beach nearby, didn't have anything to put on the table at all. We have lost three neighborhood families to NC for the same reasons. We are even thinking of going ourselves.

The E TN area continues it's move to a service/retirement economy. It's happening slowly, but it's happening.