Job Market In New Orleans? (Sun: apartment, rentals, lawyer)

[storm6398]

Hi. I will be in New Orleans at the end of the month on vacation and to look for a job and an apartment. I notice that there seems to be a lot a lot of jobs/rentals in the paper and on Craigslist...how is the economy there really?
Also I have pets - a chihuahua and 4 cats - how difficult will it be to find a rental? Thanks for all of your help. Have a wonderful day!!!

[annie_himself]

Depends on what you're looking for. Service industry is plentiful for entry level jobs.

[storm6398]

Thanks. I am looking for clerical/admin but maybe its time for a change? As long as I can find a job that pays the rent I'll be fine. Just trying to get out of Connecticut before the snow flies. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Appreciate it.

[bustaduke]

Forget craigslist to get a job. The only thing you will find on that site is that you will most likely get scammed or offered a job at half what the pay should be.

Also you will find that rent prices are high here. You will do better purchasing a place. And if I were you I would make sure that you have a job lined up before getting here.

Busta

[allcladrad]

Like everything in life, it depends.

If you have any construction skills you will likely have no trouble, painting, woodworking, electrical, plumbing or willing to work minimum wage jobs, again no problem. Key is, willing to work, those that are, do well.

Rent? like Bustaduke says line up the job first, then it starts low as a roommate.

[storm6398]

Thanks for the advice. I can't wait to get there and check it out. If nothing else I'll have a great vacation!!!

[nnick]

My Opinion:

No professional jobs in New Orleans. Period.

Plenty of jobs for $9 an hour or waiting tables.

The professional climate here is nearly nonexistant. Offices open no earlier than 9:00 typically (10 for mine) and people often take half days or don't come in at all Monday or Friday. Wages are deplorable for qualifications required. Most of the affluent are small business owners. This just isn't the place; there is no industry, and there are different priorities.

On the other hand, if you love working in the Food/Service or Hospitality industry, then this is the motherlode. You will have no shortage of work. There are always tons of places hiring in the Quarter, the CBD and in Uptown. Servers/bartenders/strippers/whatever here can make descent money.

[bustaduke]

Originally Posted by nnick

My Opinion:

No professional jobs in New Orleans. Period.

Plenty of jobs for $9 an hour or waiting tables.

The professional climate here is nearly nonexistant. Offices open no earlier than 9:00 typically (10 for mine) and people often take half days or don't come in at all Monday or Friday. Wages are deplorable for qualifications required. Most of the affluent are small business owners. This just isn't the place; there is no industry, and there are different priorities.

On the other hand, if you love working in the Food/Service or Hospitality industry, then this is the motherlode. You will have no shortage of work. There are always tons of places hiring in the Quarter, the CBD and in Uptown. Servers/bartenders/strippers/whatever here can make descent money.

To say that there's no professional jobs here is wrong. Our economy is down just like the rest of the country but if you work hard and market yourself you can find good paying professional jobs.

Myself along with a lot of people here make well over six figures as superintendents, project managers, project engineers, architects, etc., in the commercial construction industry. I've even had/have carpenters making six figures. Don't get me wrong, they work hard and long hours but it can be done if you want bad enough.

Also you can make good money waiting tables if you find the right restaurant. I waited tables here in the 70's at the now closed Red Onion and made between eight hundred and a thousand a week.

My daughter paid her way through college waiting tables at my B-I-L's restaurant. She still waits part time making over two hundred a night while back in school.

Don't get me wrong. You won't make that type of money waiting at your local po-boy restaurant. But if you wait at one like my B-I-L's where the average deuce brings in $100 plus and turns over four or five times a night.

I had to laugh several years back when I needed a lawyer for some personal business. He needed to know what I made because of what he was working on for me.

When I showed him my tax forms from the prior year he gasped and said. I can't believe a carpenter makes this much a year, that's more then I make. Without skipping a beat I laughed and said, well you should have been a carpenter.

He had a hard time understanding how someone who paid a small fortune and years in college wasn't making as much as someone who was an eight grade dropout.

I explained to him that he paid with money and years of education and I paid with years of hard work, a strong back and a lot of sweat. I also explained that an education does not equate to making lot of money. It's only a foundation to a good start and that if you don't know how to use that education you might as well just toss your money in the trash.

I don't think he ever got over the fact that I made more money then him without an education. Even though I tried to explain to him that I got my education in a different way.

OK now off my soapbox. You can find good paying jobs here if you know how to market yourself. And you can even find good paying jobs in areas that are known for low pay if you pick the right place to work.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that because you pick a job that historically pays low wagers doesn't mean you have to make low wagers.

My cousin is a painter and is happy making six or seven hundred a week. When I had my remodeling company I was happy paying people that amount, but had to bring in 20K plus a day. At the same time I had several restaurants that I was happy to bring in several thousand a day. I did very well making 10 to 15 percent profit before the bottom fell out.

If you check my profile you will see a past post about closing my business and going back to work. My first job didn't pay well, only $600 a week as a project manager, but it was a job and a foot back into commercial construction. After that I was hired as a superintendent at $75K a year that didn't last that long because the owner was screwing the employes. The job I have now is with a great company as a superintendent making well over six figures.

If you're at a job that doesn't pay well it's because you picked a company to work for who doesn't pay good money. Nothing wrong with that if you learn from it and use that job as a stepping stone to build yourself and better yourself.

To say that we have no good paying professional jobs is wrong. It's your life, your destiny, and your future. And it's up to you to make something out of it, not the company you work for. No one will hand it to you, you need to make it happen yourself.

busta

[Neworleansisprettygood]

To piggyback on Busta's post, yes, there are, in fact, professional jobs available. There aren't a lot of corporate "super-yuppie" type positions, but there is a very large legal industry, just to name one, and we are actually doing much better than the national average when it comes to unemployment. New Orleans went from being in the bottom 5 metros in 2000 in per capita income to the top third in 2009. And should the national economy pick back up anytime soon, the money flowing through this town will be ridiculous when you consider the amount of pent-up demand for tourism, but as I said, we're doing very, very well compared to other areas right now even with that historically cyclical industry still in the doldrums.

[allcladrad]

Obama's political advisor when commenting on jobs created by a political opponent said "those are not the kind of jobs we want" The jobs he was referring to paid 15 to 16 bucks an hour.

New Orleans has jobs, pity not all of them are for fresh out of college CEO positions, but if you have talent and are not afraid of competition or hard work you will do well.

I watched Sunday Night Football last night and the commentators mentioned that one of the head coaches, after finishing his masters, took a job, midnight shift at a toll booth.