People looking to relocate here (Philadelphia: sales, home, find a job)

[PJG26]

Just curious. What professions are many of you in? Other than health/education, this city is for all intensive purposes as bad as Detroit. It's manufacturing base died by the 1980s. Businesses other than Comcast don't want to operate here because of the high taxes. I know myself for Accounting, there's practically nothing and an army of people applying for every job I apply to. A recruiter told me I should look elsewhere for a job because Philly's dead and there are a lot of B-school grads. My friends in construction are on the bench collecting unemployment for long periods of time. Am I not seeing something here?

[S.D.L.]

I am in the grocery business.
Always has been plenty of jobs in grocery and retail.
Unfortunately, all of the people in other fields figured this out when their jobs dried up, so a lot of the jobs I was applying for had already been filled by 'business professionals.'
Not only that, but a lot of the grocery stores were on a 'hiring freeze' because of the overflux of people they had.
Took a little while to find a job here....

But I did. And its all good now.
So I don't guess anything is hopeless.
Just seek the proper channels, use whatever connections you can, and get in and find something

[thesixth]

speaking for myself, spouse and other relatives or friends- our professions run the gamut: law, education, accounting firm, government agencies, SEPTA, nursing, small business owners, retail, etc.
But most of these examples are people who have been working 25+ years in their fields.

[FlyerNation]

I'm curious to know if logistics (supply procurement esp.) has a presence in the Delaware Valley.

[thesixth]

Supply procurement through the government, yes. But not as much as it did previously. There is a Defense Supply operation in NE Phila. Relocated from South Phila when bases/military installations needed to reconfigure and consolidate.

[thedrizzlemonster]

About the only comparison I can think of with Philly and Detroit is the fact they both have lost significant population as a result of the loss of manufacturing jobs and white flight. Philadelphia, however, has since diversified its job base to include professions everywhere from law, meds and eds, retail and so forth. Detroit no so much.

So while I empathize with your situation of not being able to find work, you will find that your situation is transferable to any city in the US right now. Compartively speaking, Philly is acutally MUCH better off. Here you can look for yourself.

http://socds.huduser.org/BLS_LAUS/emplstat.pdf

[FindingZen]

I can sort of see the comparison between Detroit and Philadelphia although I agree that Philly is much, much better off. For example, you can't buy the average home in Philly on sales clerk wages.

Metro Philly has a diverse economy. An increasing amount of opportunity does come from the suburbs, though.

[darkone]

For those who are highly educated in the fields of Engineering, Computer Science and Biochemistry/Pharmaceuticals there is a wealth of jobs in the Philadelphia area -

Lockheed Martin, L3 Communications, Boeing in Engineering/Aersopace.

Wyeth, Merck, Johnson & Johnson etc. in Pharmaceuticals.

Sunoco, Rohm & Haas in Petroleum and Chemicals

Don't forget about all of the research hospitals within the city itself.

Detroit?? Philly should not be compared to Detroit.