Job opp. in Western Ma (Boston, Springfield: sales, insurance, construction)

[K&S100607]

Husband and I are looking to relocate to Western, MA he is orginally from S. Deerfield and we now live in NH. Anyone know of any companies in the area that are hiring? He is in sales now but just got his degree in accounting. Any advice would be very helpful.

[brightdoglover]

Offhand, I don't know of anything, but western Mass. is not exactly a thriving place for employment. A beautiful place, but not much much work. You'd have to have something very specific lined up to move there. Good luck.

[Jeremy01506]

There are definitely jobs in Western Mass! The further you get into the Berkshires, where there are lightly populated areas, there may not be a lot of employment. But the Springfield/Chicopee has LOTS of opportunities and Springfield is only 15 minutes down the highway from Deerfield. You should definitely check sites like Monster.com, but another local option would be to look on MassLive.com (the Springfield paper's website) and look through their classified ads.

Hope this helps!

[willdufauve]

Franklin County is economically depressed, lots of social problems.

[MidwifeMom]

For someone thinking of working in Springfield but living in a more rural setting, are there issues with bad traffic, rush-hour, congestion getting into the city?

[MA_brnNrsd]

Originally Posted by willdufauve

Franklin County is economically depressed, lots of social problems.

Please elaborate on this, I was thinking of moving there in the hopefully near future....

[MA_brnNrsd]

Originally Posted by MidwifeMom

For someone thinking of working in Springfield but living in a more rural setting, are there issues with bad traffic, rush-hour, congestion getting into the city?

There can be, but NOWHERE as bad as Boston. It depends where in Springfield you work. Downtown there would probably be more traffic then other places in Springfield. I used to travel from Chicopee to the American Red Cross in Springfield (its on industrial Dr., relatively close to the Chicopee line.) and with the construction with the Deady Bridge it took me about 30 mins. But I was coming from the opposite side of Chicopee next to the South Hadley border.

[baron tweedmouth]

If you are looking to relocate to western mass...there are jobs. The majority of the employement opportunities in the financial industry in particular are found in Springfield and Hartford. You may or may not be aware, but Springfield is less than 25 miles from downtown Hartford with many major financial/insurance companies located just north of Hartford (closer to MA line). For those taking advantage of opportunities in the Hartford Area but wanting to live in MA....you are best not to go north of Northampton as it then gets to be more of a haul. I-91 connects Hartford directly to Springfield and points north....and for the most part is a great highway.

Seeing that your spouse has accounting experience, I would suggest the following insurance/finance companies that have a significant presence in the area:

MassMutual
The Hartford
MetLife
Travelers
Aetna
ING
NYLife
Cigna
Connecticare

...the list goes on...

Many of the above companies are located just north of Hartford directly off the highway in Windsor, CT....a growing area of insurance/finance.

If you are not set on Deerfield, I would suggest looking at Longmeadow, E. Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Hadley, S. Hadley, Amherst, Northampton...and as always many of the smaller towns in the area. The above mentioned towns are all thriving communities, but may be more expensive.

The area as a whole has tremendous quality of life in my opinion. The opportunities continue to be on the up and up as the growth from Hartford heads north.