Affordable towns relatively near Seattle with job opportunities

[spotlesseden]

i though he said "I'd rather not commute all the way to Seattle."

[Apathizer]

Originally Posted by Superbear

Good advice, so it might be worth moving very near Seattle to expand my job opportunities but is the job outlook far more bleaker in the smaller cities in general or only in comparison to a large city like Seattle? I'd rather have a small town feel but I could settle for a larger area like Tacoma or Kent if there were more jobs to be had.

I think that's probably the situation you'll be in. Unfortunately for you, you seem to want what so many others want: An easy-going, small (or small-ish) area with decent job opportunities. Unless your jobs skills are highly practical, decent jobs in small areas are very difficult to come by: Having experience in data entry, customer service, delivery, and some cursory law experience probably won't help much - not to insult you or anything, I'm just being real. In smaller areas you'll probably be limited to low wage retail-type jobs. In this economy you might even have difficulty finding a decent job in Seattle.

I think you might be on the right track looking at places like Tacoma and Olympia, but a couple things to consider: 1) Tacoma traffic is almost as bad as Seattle - at least during rush hour. 2) Most decent jobs in Olympia are in state government: Since there are significant budget issue, and Olympia's population is well-educated, finding a decent job there will likely be very difficult.

Sorry to be such downer, but unfortunately there are no easy answers for what you seek. I wish you good luck though.

[Ira500]

If you were in a place like Kent, you could work in Kent, or Renton, or Seattle. There are a lot of warehouses in Kent, so maybe there would be jobs related to that. I'm not sure I'd want to live in DT Kent, but it does have it's old downtown charm, with a great breakfast place.