Employement in Sacramento Area (unemployment rate, buy, universities)

[CityGirl72]

You can live on minimum wage depending on your lifestyle. I lived on $6.75 an hour, had a car loan ($125 a month) and an apartment ($375 a month). And was just fine.

BUt now that I have kids I couldn't do it. It's $1500 per month to put both my kids into (full time) daycare. That's more then I made in a month on minimum wage.

[Majin]

How did you rent an apartment for $375/month or did you have room mates?

Back in about 2001 I lived in a POS studio (captial towers) for $700/month. When I left it was almost $1000/month (peak of the housing boom). It may be a bit less now/

[CityGirl72]

On the original topic of unemployment, I'll give my example and my opinion as a job searcher.

The only job interviews I seem to get are from Craigslist ads. I think that's so interesting. All those large companies that you have to use their websites are hiring within or by referral (mostly)

I interviewed for a job I probably would have got if it wasn't so competitive. I'm a mid-level/sr level manager. The company had to pull the ad from Craigslist after 5 days, because they said they got "1000s" of resumes in just a few days.

I was one of the lucky 25 resumes that got to have an interview for ONE POSITION. I didn't get it - I think I was only a 75% fit. In a regular economy I bet I would have gotten it - but employers can pick and choose right now.

I've also noticed that mid-level managers are having the hardest time. They are the ones let go and all their responsibilites have been given to Sr Analysts shoulders...I see a ton of analyst positions, but hardly any manager level. Same goes for C Level, they are getting canned too, and Directors have those responsibilites on their shoulders.

All in the name of downsizing.

[ndfmnlf]

Sacramento's unemployment rate is 12.8% which is right in line with the state, but higher than the national rate. This is a bit of a puzzle. The pattern seems to be that capital cities and university towns have lower unemployment and stronger economies than the norm. They have weathered the recession better than the rest of the country. Think Austin TX, Madison WI, Boise ID. The presence of state government and universities provides stable employment.

Sacramento is the state capital and has Sac State and several junior colleges with a sizeable combined enrollment, not to mention several medical centers that are recession-proof. Yet, the unemployment rate is way up there. What gives?

[CityGirl72]

Originally Posted by Majin

How did you rent an apartment for $375/month or did you have room mates?

Back in about 2001 I lived in a POS studio (captial towers) for $700/month. When I left it was almost $1000/month (peak of the housing boom). It may be a bit less now/

It was 1996. And it was a charming building at I st 22nd, it was a studio apartment, wood floors, etc. And utilities were included.

They go for $625 now.

[CityGirl72]

Here it is!! I lived there nearly 6 years. The BEST time of my life. I went to Sac State and biked there.

Amazing 1920's Charm * Specials Avail * Huge Walkin Closet * (http://sacramento.craigslist.org/apa/1682970127.html - broken link)

[Majin]

This it?

[wburg]

In 1996 I was renting the aforementioned $1000 a month six-bedroom house (split 8 ways) before moving to a large studio (about 2 blocks from CityGirl's place) that cost $395 a month. I could afford it (and a very used car) because I was making the princely sum of $8.80 an hour!

Capitol Towers has always been a premium-priced apartment complex due to its location, if not for its amenities. At the time Midtown was a lot less expensive for comparable units, plus the older Midtown apartments (like this one!) had a lot more character and style, even if they sometimes lacked modern amenities.

[KC6ZLV]

Originally Posted by ndfmnlf

Sacramento's unemployment rate is 12.8% which is right in line with the state, but higher than the national rate. This is a bit of a puzzle. The pattern seems to be that capital cities and university towns have lower unemployment and stronger economies than the norm. They have weathered the recession better than the rest of the country. Think Austin TX, Madison WI, Boise ID. The presence of state government and universities provides stable employment.

Sacramento is the state capital and has Sac State and several junior colleges with a sizeable combined enrollment, not to mention several medical centers that are recession-proof. Yet, the unemployment rate is way up there. What gives?

The unemployment rate isn't always a true indication of what is going on in a city. Chico has always had a high unemployment rate and it is somewhat of a college town. Davis has had an exceptionally low unemployment rate and the reason has as much to do with UC Davis as the type of people who live in Davis. Many of them are in careers which don't see as many layoffs as the rest of the economy. Chances are they also work in Sacramento or possibly in Contra Costa County. San Luis Obispo has had a fair unemployment rate. One which isn't bad, but not really good either. The thing the unemployment rate in SLO doesn't indicate is salaries, and competition for jobs. It is difficult to find much more than a low-paying service job there, and really, a large percentage of the population there is doing other things other than looking for work.

The colleges throughout California have had layoffs, so education is not immune to economics. Job security in hospitals is also a thing of the past.

The local politicians relied upon building the local economy on growth (construction) which resulted in a disproportionate amount of people working in related occupations (real estate, finance, etc) and really didn't bother to make much of an attempt to encourage companies to bring in, or keep jobs here. It really is a difficult task when companies like Intel can pay someone overseas 50 cents an hour and the cheapest minimum wage anywhere in the country is $7.25 an hour, and nobody here will do that kind of work for $7.25 an hour.

[Phil Minor]

Originally Posted by ndfmnlf

Sacramento's unemployment rate is 12.8% which is right in line with the state, but higher than the national rate. This is a bit of a puzzle. The pattern seems to be that capital cities and university towns have lower unemployment and stronger economies than the norm. They have weathered the recession better than the rest of the country. Think Austin TX, Madison WI, Boise ID. The presence of state government and universities provides stable employment.

Sacramento is the state capital and has Sac State and several junior colleges with a sizeble combined enrollment, not to mention several medical centers that are recession-proof. Yet, the unemployment rate is way up there. What gives?

This link that breaks down unemployment by census designated places. While the unemployment rate in the Sacramento region is 12.8%, the unemployment rate in Gold River is just 2.6% where as in Parkway South Sacramento its 22.1%
http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/lfmonth/allsubs.xls

The big difference between the two areas is is average educational attainment. In Parkway South Sacramento only 7.4% of the population has a bachelor's degree or higher. In Gold River 57.6% of the population has a bachelor's degree or higher.

Parkway-South Sacramento CDP, California - Fact Sheet - American FactFinder

Gold River CDP, California - Fact Sheet - American FactFinder

The more education you have, the more likely you are to have a job. Part of the reason college towns have lower unemployment rates is that people in college towns tend to be much better educated and this group is much more likely to have a job. If you compare unemployment rates in say Minneapolis vs Detroit, the big reason for the difference in unemployment rates is the Detroit just isn't as well educated as Minneapolis.

But there are also regional effects too. Austin has a more responsive zoning policy. If a developer wants to get his property subdivided to build more housing, Austin was pretty responsive in approving those requests. Sacramento has more prescriptive zoning. Basically a set number of housing units are approved each year several years in advance of when they are expected to be built upon. If demand is greater than available supply, there can be bidding wars for the limited supply of buildable lots. As a result the housing boom was experienced in this region more as price spike than a building boom. In Austin the housing boom was more of a construction boom than a price spike. While Sacramento grew 18% in the past 9 years. Austin grew 36% in that same time frame. Because prices didn't go up as much in Austin in the first place prices didn't need to correct as much when they went down, as a result there were fewer foreclosures and the local economy held up better.

Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Central California FHFA Home Price Appreciation Tracker
Texas FHFA Home Price Appreciation Tracker

Table 1. Civilian labor force and unemployment by state and metropolitan area

The other advantage that Austin has over Sacramento is that its just a lot better educated. If you look at Austin 42.6% of the population over 25 has a bachlors degree. In Sacramento the comparble number is only 23.9%. Because Austin has more neighborhoods that function like Gold River and fewer that look like Parkway South Sacramento, that structurally keeps the unemployment rate further down in Austin.

Austin city, Texas - Fact Sheet - American FactFinder

Sacramento city, California - Fact Sheet - American FactFinder