A few recent press pieces on the employment picture in Spokane. In general, there are good jobs to be had in Spokane but if you're really looking to work for a large corporation it will be more difficult compared to larger markets.
Excerpts from a pretty fair article:
The Spokesman-Review.com
Back in the day when the closing of The Davenport Hotel was the big economic news, and it went down from there, Spokane leaders fretted about the flight of their children, and personal incomes falling further behind the national average. Not to mention Seattle's.
Less so today. Except, of course, for Seattle.
The 2006 personal income numbers released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show Spokane's rate of increase for total personal and per capita income edged ahead of the national rate. Barely, but ahead. By 6.9 percent for Spokane compared with 6.3 percent for the nation in the case of personal income, and 5.4 percent compared with 5.3 percent in per capita income.
On the ground, where income means wages, Spokane's gain was "gargantuan." More importantly, it establishes a better foundation for future increases than more volatile rent and investment income, he says, noting the income gains were relatively well distributed among the lower, middle and upper classes.
reater Spokane Incorporated has embraced "vitals" – income, education, and commuting times among them – to benchmark itself against other communities. Last year set the bar for income growth high. Despite his pessimism, Zahir says he can find nothing negative among the indicators he watches.
Anecdotally, the city even seems to be retaining its young talent, he says.
The vital of all vitals.
Excerpts another recent article on the labor market from the Journal of Business:
Spokane Journal of Business - The Business Newspaper For The Inland Northwest
As Spokane’s labor market continues to tighten, employers are left struggling to find workers, and are stepping up their recruiting efforts as a result.
The labor shortage spans a broad spectrum of industries. Manufacturers and contractors are turning down jobs due to a lack of workers, financial institutions are upping the ante in their pitched competition for personnel, and health-care providers are scrambling to find nurses. Staffing agencies also are feeling the pinch.
In May, the Spokane-area unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in nearly nine years. As an example of employers’ desperation in such a market, MacKay says that five years ago, businesses would recruit community college students a few months before they graduated. Now, employers are hiring students in the beginning of their first year of school, because they want to snatch them up before someone else does, he says.
The trend might well continue. A recent survey by the local office of Manpower Inc. found that 43 percent of the Spokane-area employers interviewed planned to hire more employees in the third quarter of this year, up from 40 percent last year. Another 44 percent planned to maintain their current staffing levels, and 10 percent expected to reduce their staffing levels. Three percent said they were unsure about their hiring plans.
“Spokane has generally lagged the trends, but I’m expecting that wages are going to have to go up and people are going to have to find more creative ways to recruit workers, perhaps by hiring for more part-time positions,” Droz says.
One of the main challenges Rockwood Clinic PS, of Spokane, is facing involves finding experienced registered nurses (RNs) and senior-level management personnel, says Laura Hill, associate administrator of human resources at Rockwood. RNs experienced in surgery, oncology, and cardiology are particularly hard to find, and Rockwood also struggles to find information-technology (IT) workers, she says.
Engineers have become scarce in Spokane, too, as they have nationwide, says Marlys Buzby, human resources manager at FLSmidth RAHCO, a Spokane engineer of equipment used in mining and agriculture.
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just what I said......tons of jobs in paper yet.....?
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