Logistic Jobs (houses, job market, incomes)

[FergusonT]

I am currently living in southwest Michigan. I have lived here all my life and I recently married. I work for Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, which is a beverage distributor. Living in the snow belt in southwest Michigan I have grown to dislike the winters here, and even parts of summer. The lack of sun and the unpredictability is very frustrating and also has an effect on our mental and physical health, specially my wife. She has been interested in moving somewhere where the weather stays consistent with a low humidity and lots of sunshine. She suffers from fibromyalgia and it is effected very severely by the changing weather. I did some research and found that the jet stream, that effects our weather so much here in the midwest, doesn't come down by Hawaii. There is a jet stream there, but not as strong. I also found that Hawaii has a consistent climate for the most part and has a mostly low amount of humidity compared to here in southwest Michigan. I have 2 questions. 1. can anybody confirm the low humidity and consistent weather. 2. I have been in logistics for 10 years now and I am wondering what kind of job market lies in Hawaii as far as logistics/supply chain, anything to do with warehousing. I know with the recession everything is messed up...but in a normal economic climate, how is the logistics job market? My wife and I are far from making a solid decision, we just want to feel out where the best place for us will be in this big world.

[Balad1]

Working for the federal government would be about the only choice for making a living wage in your field in Hawaii. The positions would be for the military and most likely on Oahu.

The federal jobs link is usajobs.gov; you can set up an account and it will email you with new positions for your area of interest as they become available.

[hotzcatz]

The weather is more or less consistent, I think we have the least amount of weather variance through an normal year, however, the humidity is almost constantly high. We are surrounded by oceans of water and many places in the islands get a LOT of rainfall. Would some place like San Diego have better climate for your wife? I think their weather is pretty consistent and dry.

There are a few warehousing jobs, but they don't pay real well. It isn't all that difficult in Hawaii with warehouses since basically everything comes into the port on a barge. Then it is shifted to a truck and mostly goes to the retailers warehouses or the end users storerooms. Not a lot of stored stuff since warehouse space is so expensive, not much stuff produced in Hawaii so most stuff coming in is for the islands.

Does your wife work? To live on Oahu (where most of the warehouse jobs would be since that is the main port coming into the islands) it almost takes two incomes.

[dwedeking]

I agree Southern California has real consistent weather and a large population so there is a large amount of shipping and warehousing. The inland areas in San Diego, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties (especially the last two) have a large amount of warehousing and distribution. Unfortunately unemployment is above 15% in those two counties so I'd only move there if I already had a job lined up.