Little Rock Underrated? (Fort Smith, Pine Bluff: unemployment rate, living in, legally)

[PurpleLove08]

Originally Posted by johncronejr

Fair response Lez. I know the Springdale/Rogers area schools are hot after teachers with ESL/ELL endorsements. That's a great career choice. What colleges are you looking into?

No doubt, you would probably find more LGBT activity in other areas, but I just didn't want you to feel like you were alone. My wife and I are big proponents of LGBT rights. I do understand how it can sometimes seem like the whole state is against you when subjects like Act 1 come up or whe someone whips their bible out on you...but you aren't alone.

I look forward to hearing of you doing well in college. UCA has a great education program, you should give them a look. My wife is enrolled in the Early Childhood program now. Take care!

Thanks, that really means a lot.
Right now I'm enrolled at Pulaski Tech with plans of transferring to UALR. I'm open to UCA, providing the financing is there with certain scholarships and such.

I would love to stay in the central part of AR but if a job takes me elsewhere, I'll gladly go.

[johncronejr]

Originally Posted by LiveTodayLez08

Thanks, that really means a lot.
Right now I'm enrolled at Pulaski Tech with plans of transferring to UALR. I'm open to UCA, providing the financing is there with certain scholarships and such.

I would love to stay in the central part of AR but if a job takes me elsewhere, I'll gladly go.

If you do end up wanting to explore other states, I would suggest you take a look at Austin, TX. It is a vibrant city with LOTS to do. It also has a more liberal mindset as far as accepting different ideas, and is a very artistic/musical place. It also has the added benefit of needing MANY spanish speaking teachers due to a large Hispanic population, and they have an excellent salary schedule for teachers.

I have heard UALR is an excellent school. I don't know anything about their education program, but I have been checking out their Public Administration master's program.

[Aporkalypse]

Forbes had Little Rock #2 on their list of cities to weather the recession based on strong employment numbers and low cost of living. I thought that was nice.

[PurpleLove08]

Originally Posted by johncronejr

If you do end up wanting to explore other states, I would suggest you take a look at Austin, TX. It is a vibrant city with LOTS to do. It also has a more liberal mindset as far as accepting different ideas, and is a very artistic/musical place. It also has the added benefit of needing MANY spanish speaking teachers due to a large Hispanic population, and they have an excellent salary schedule for teachers.

I have heard UALR is an excellent school. I don't know anything about their education program, but I have been checking out their Public Administration master's program.

Yeah, I will always keep Texas in my pocket as a backup but I really don't see it happening. I really want to stay in the state and change things for the better. I'll probably travel a lot but I think I will probably want to always call Arkansas my home.
We'll see though.

I was looking into their Public Administration program too, seeing as I want to run the state board of Education one day. What are your goals?

[AllenKarber]

Little Rock is very underrated. Like all cities,it has it's good and bad points. The River Market area is about as good as anything I've seen anywhere. It's pretty vibrant down there especially in warm weather!

[johncronejr]

Originally Posted by LiveTodayLez08

Yeah, I will always keep Texas in my pocket as a backup but I really don't see it happening. I really want to stay in the state and change things for the better. I'll probably travel a lot but I think I will probably want to always call Arkansas my home.
We'll see though.

I was looking into their Public Administration program too, seeing as I want to run the state board of Education one day. What are your goals?

If you aspire to have a leadership role in the State Department of Education, a Public Administration Masters could be very valuable. You may be even better off pursuing a Doctorate in Educational Adminstration. To my knowledge you will need to obtain a teaching license before you can be considered for admission to the Educational Administration program. That is very beneficial as you will understand what teachers contend with on a daily basis. Considering your age of 18, if you pursue a Doctorate, you can complete the degree by the time you are 25-26 years of age. You will then have the educational world at your feet, so to speak. I wish you the best of luck.

My goals are to work in city/county/state/federal government, with my eye on a County Judge seat. I am looking to move back to my home of Cleburne County/Heber Springs. I am deciding between a Masters in Public Administration through UALR or a Masters in Community and Economic Development through UCA. Either degree will also allow me the opportunity to work in Human Resources.

[PurpleLove08]

Originally Posted by johncronejr

If you aspire to have a leadership role in the State Department of Education, a Public Administration Masters could be very valuable. You may be even better off pursuing a Doctorate in Educational Adminstration. To my knowledge you will need to obtain a teaching license before you can be considered for admission to the Educational Administration program. That is very beneficial as you will understand what teachers contend with on a daily basis. Considering your age of 18, if you pursue a Doctorate, you can complete the degree by the time you are 25-26 years of age. You will then have the educational world at your feet, so to speak. I wish you the best of luck.

My goals are to work in city/county/state/federal government, with my eye on a County Judge seat. I am looking to move back to my home of Cleburne County/Heber Springs. I am deciding between a Masters in Public Administration through UALR or a Masters in Community and Economic Development through UCA. Either degree will also allow me the opportunity to work in Human Resources.

I don't think I could pursue 8 years of school right now...it's just a bit much, at least financially. You have given me plenty to think about though.
I'd want some years of teaching experience under my belt, that way I'm not seen as some outsider just telling teachers and administrators what to do with no idea of what they face every day.

Both of your degrees sound great, especially the Masters in Community and Economic Development. I wish you the best.
Do you read Governing magazine?

[johncronejr]

Originally Posted by LiveTodayLez08

I don't think I could pursue 8 years of school right now...it's just a bit much, at least financially. You have given me plenty to think about though.
I'd want some years of teaching experience under my belt, that way I'm not seen as some outsider just telling teachers and administrators what to do with no idea of what they face every day.

Both of your degrees sound great, especially the Masters in Community and Economic Development. I wish you the best.
Do you read Governing magazine?

In the education class I took this semester, the Professor recommended teaching for 2-3 years before pursuing a graduate degree. The main reason was to increase chances of getting hired, since the initial salary is lower for BSE degrees. Don't forget about the incredible amount of scholarships available out there which can help with all levels of college.

I have never heard of Governing Magazine. I will have to check it out.

[bchris02]

Originally Posted by Aporkalypse

Forbes had Little Rock #2 on their list of cities to weather the recession based on strong employment numbers and low cost of living. I thought that was nice.

I saw a New York Times article that listed Little Rock as one of the metro areas already in recession, NWA on the brink of recession, but OKC and the many Texas metro areas still have expanding economies.

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by bchris02

I saw a New York Times article that listed Little Rock as one of the metro areas already in recession, NWA on the brink of recession, but OKC and the many Texas metro areas still have expanding economies.

Yeah, I saw that oh so quantitative (sarcasm) map that's been posted over in General US. No methodology on arriving at that data was presented. Did you also happen to read that 5 of 8 metros in the US that actually reduced their unemployment rate are in Arkansas? (For the record, aggregate unemployment for the state as a whole did increase) Five Of Six Arkansas Cities See Drop In Unemployment Rates - ArkansasBusiness.com The raw data was also linked over in General US. I don't currently have the link but could look it up if anyone is interested. Despite all of the job creation going on in many of the TX metros, the unemployment rate is still rising. If you dig into the data some, you see that unemployment rate is rising in some areas because of an influx of new residents (Houston and Dallas in particular). Meanwhile, closer to home, Jonesboro showed the highest unemployment rate reduction in the entire country. But if you dig into the figures, you find that it was generated solely by reduction in workforce. Meanwhile the other 4 cities mentioned in the above article saw increases in total workforce with reductions in unemployment indicating that job creation outpaced new residents.

Admittedly, both OKC and Tulsa look mighty solid with substantial workforce growth with only very marginal increases in unemployment.

Now, this data may not fully support the position that Little Rock is NOT in recession, but I think it certainly does support that if we are, we certainly aren't neck deep like most everywhere else. We are growing in population and increasing total jobs.

Also, according to this article Modest Job Market Expected for Little Rock Area - ArkansasBusiness.com, your ability to find work at least in this area will be highly dependent on what you do. That should really come as no surprise to most but it does look like a shift is beginning in Little Rock's job profile. While professional services may remain steady, most new jobs are being created in durable goods manufacture. Again, in a town as small as Little Rock, this should not be a surprise with FalconJet still expanding and LM Glassfiber and Wellspun all coming online. Now I realize that you maintain that manufacturing jobs aren't as good as some of the jobs we may be losing and you are certainly correct from the standpoint of raw salary figures. But this fails to account for the very basic fact that local wealth of any region is predicated upon export of goods and services and thus import of outside money. I don't think we are currently losing many jobs that generate metro-wide revenue. We are shedding local support functionality that represents localized money flow. Now...next year will all hinge on what Verizon does with Alltel capacity. But I think the fact that we are adding manufacturing capacity at a time when the rest of the country is losing it hand over fist possibly says great things about our future.

To sum up, I see indicators that tell me that Little Rock may not really be in recession. The only thing that has said that is a graphic in the New York Times that failed to provide backing data. Maybe we are, but I'm unconvinced yet.