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But yes, it is very difficult to find a job here -- for new people, for current residents, for people young and old, professional and hourly, for highly educated and uneducated, for hard workers, for slackers, for full-timers and part-timers -- for everyone.
People still seem to believe very old Money magazine articles saying it is one of the "best places to live" and newer ridiculous articles stating it is one of the "best places to ride out the recession." Don't believe it. Of course, we all hope it gets better, but no one can predict the future, and right now, it is difficult to find a job.
Spend some time reading this forum, and you will know it's been like this for quite some time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lindsole
I am moving to Raleigh due to my school and my husband being in the National Guard.
The only way my wife and I are able to maintain a reasonably comfortable life here for our family is the fact that my income comes almost entirely from clients, including former employers, who are based elsewhere. If that work were to dry up and I wasn't able to secure new business, we'd be packing our bags and moving, most likely overseas. I would not even attempt a job search in this area.
Funny that, I am NC born native but moved to MD to get a job. Once the contract ended I found it hard to find any employment in the DC/NVA/MD area and had to move back in summer 2008. So far, I haven't found anything here either. I have a Masters Degree but am only working part time in food service. My background is in the Arts so I may never find a job in my field again.
I moved from Buffalo and my opportunity here is far beyond what Buffalo EVER could have given me. In Buffalo, I graduated from a good school, had about 10 internships and jobs including some full time ones and I got a job in Buffalo out of 1,500 applicants for a job paying $10 an hour with no benefits. It was insane- I couldn't get a job to save my life. I moved down here, got a job after some hard searching, I make good money, have good health insurance, a house, a car- I can even afford to eat! Everything I could never have in Buffalo. You also have to do things that you think are below you even if you have a college degree, like wait tables or rent apartments in an apartment complex. I sucked it up and did it because it was better than nothing and my current employer saw that and respected it.
it's bad everywhere. i'd hate to deal with the expense of moving, plus the hassle of trying to get familiar with a new area, while trying to find a job in this economy. i guess it depends on your field, but if you look at unemployment numbers, this area is around average. it's not like north dakota is the place to be, just because of their low numbers. are there that many other, similar areas to the triangle that are much better for jobs?
My wife and I are from northern VA and we moved down here in the summer of 2006. We've actually done quite well for ourselves (her much better than me). Problem is she works for GSK and they have had layoffs every year for the last 3 years. She's been safe so far, but has a real chance of being let go this time. I actually have a chance (albeit much smaller) of getting laid off as well.
We've discussed it and if she gets laid off, or heaven forbid both of us, we would probably look really hard into moving back to northern VA. I see many more jobs up there in my field and she would also have many more opportunities on the MD side of the Potomac. Plus we would be back close to family.
At least we have a good stash of cash in an emergency fund, no revolving debt, and about $60-$70k in equity in our house (hopefully we could sell it within a few months). I like it here, but wouldn't mind moving back "home". The only issue would be, if we make the same money up there as we make here ( a good possibility), then our lifestyle would take a hit. Our mortgage here wouldn't be enough to rent an apartment up there. We would just have to cut back on retirement savings and non-essential expenses.
I hope it doesn't happen, but I can't see us staying here if she gets laid off, or if we both do. We shall see...
Waterboy, just a quick question: Why do you think your salary would remain the same if you moved to the DC area? Is it the specific industry you work in?
I'm looking at getting at least $10,000 more for doing the same work up there as I'm doing down here. And maybe even up to $20,000 from what I've seen in some job postings. My husband would definitely take a massive pay cut if he left his VA-based company to do the same job down here. So I'm just curious about your rationale.
Thank you to the OP for this post. I have a friend who was able to get a transfer from NYC to Raleigh. Her and her husband are doing ok and were trying to convince my wife and me to move down. However, after doing some researching, tech jobs are nearly impossible to find and the housing market is nearly identically to what I pay in a county north of NYC.
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