Is Portland/Portland Metro economy booming or temporarily getting worse? (lawyer, employment)

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by jj85

Dear pdxMIKEpdx:
OMG I feel bad for you. I'm in the same vote. In fact 6 years ago a friend of mine and I went to Lake Tahoe with no plans, it was on a we both have the weekend off type thing let's go, I know where to get the best rate on hotels.
Now it's like omg I have no clue how I'd pay for the gas lol.
6 years ago I was making less money than I am now, but had more money to spend on stuff.
And my uncle went from making about $2000/mth to where he's at now at about $1200
I'll be up there in about a month or less hopefully
PS: Last time around I voted for Romney because I knew Obamacare wouldn't work out, he has a bad track record. Jobs in my field went from being standard full time 40hrs/week with 2 days off to part time, around 20-30hrs/week, not enough to survive on so starting out in a new career field. Will probably attend PCC
Good luck on your retirement, is moving an option for you as maybe get someplace cheaper on the utilities?

Well, just to be clear on things, I have a good retirement and am not hurting for money.
(I just don't have the extra cash I used to have.)
It took a hell of a lot of hard work to get me to where I am now, but it paid off.
Oregon has been my home for generations and I will never move.
I personally am not in a bad situation.

I have already moved out of the Portland metro area, and just by doing so am saving hundreds every month.

I just look at Oregons and the US's economy as a whole, and IMHO, it stinks.
It stinks in a different way but it still stinks.

Like I said, the jobs may be slowly coming along, but the beginning of inflation is killing any kind of progress.

Anybody remember the 1970's?

[take57]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

Anybody remember the 1970's?

I long for the days of nickle beer and paying 25 cents for an Oregonian newspaper.
Predictably, I lead a perpetually sad and disheartened existence

[pdxMIKEpdx]

I too long for the days when 5-10 bucks an hour was considered a top wage, and minimum wage was 2 bucks an hour....

Nowadays a guy making 20 bucks an hour can't support a family of three or four.
(On his own, without government handouts)

[George Tirebiter]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

I just look at Oregons and the US's economy as a whole, and IMHO, it stinks.

Welcome to the thirdworldation of the Land of the Free.
We are witnessing the gradual transition to a neo-feudal society, with a small number of wealthy and a huge number of poor.
The longstanding bubble, that's gradually collapsing, served to cover up the actual economic situation of this country.
The US originated with a small number of wealthy, along with a lot of poor people, and is gradually returning to that reality.

[nagrommm]

I can only offer my experience, but after living in PDX for 14 years I made the move out this past summer with my husband and daughter. The facts for us were that neither of us worked for Nike or Intel and had a hard time making ends meet. After years of working two jobs, or scraping along with pay that is half of what my husband's pay is where we live now (temporarily cause we are looking at moving elsewhere at the moment) we just couldn't do it anymore. The only good news was that it only took us 5 days to sell our house as the real estate market was insane. I assume it still is but in my experience, Portland needs a lot of job growth and more competitive wages if it's going to grow with all the influx of new people to the area. It really IS a great place for young people to retire, but once you're out of your 20's and looking to support a family, it can be a challenge.

[hawaiian by heart]

Idk, my opinion of Portland, like our country is if its important enough we will do it. If our workers were important or having more jobs we would have higher wages and more jobs. We keep talking about how the economy is bad etc. But what we fail to notice that the Whole Foods of our country are still making their 100,000+ a day in sales. And curtain interests are still being met, ever walked thru the pearl district? I remember it used to be warehouses. Idk we talk about how the economy is so bad, we cut programs for the needy, but pay for a war that if we put its one day expenses into our education system, or restoration of a manafacturing economy or anything else worth while we would be the strongest nation again. The problem is priorities and special interests.

[AndyAMG]

Portland economy is growing for blue collar work like manufacturing, machining and welding. It's also not bad if you have some mad programming skills.

IT/Medical/Office work/Service/Hospitality sectors are stagnant.

But Education/ Retail Sales/Government are contracting.

That was the consensus on Oregonlive not to long ago.

[ChristinePDX]

One of the things that I find hardest in Portland is the cost of childcare vs. wages. With two little kids at home, I can't AFFORD to work full-time for my measley retail salary: I would actually be paying more in childcare costs per hour than I take home. Thank god we have two adults in our family. My husband works during the week, and I work all weekend to make ends meet without having to afford childcare.

Has anyone else had a more difficult time with this issue in Portland vs. other areas of the county? I think it might be a fact of modern day life, but I've heard that childcare in Oregon is actually much more expensive here:

"Oregon was also found to be the least affordable state for center-based care for a married couple with a 4-year-old, ahead of New York, Minnesota and Vermont."
Child Care Costs, Already High, Outpace Family Income Gains : The Two-Way : NPR

When this study first came out, the comment sections in the articles about it were full of people lauding Oregon for paying childcare professionals what they were worth. While I understand that point of view, I find it really frustrating NOT to be able work more without paying through the nose for it.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

This is turning into an interesting thread.

We all hear the official economic news, which tends to be positive when corporations need our money (Christmas, etc..) or when the government needs to look good (election times) etc....

We all hear the stuff like "don't move here unless you have a job", the questions about basic utility costs and the basic costs of living here.


What we don't hear about are the daily financial struggles that can make life difficult in Portland (and Oregon).


I believe that kind of information is extremely valuable (but often overlooked and un-asked) to somebody that is considering moving here.

Hopefully this thread won't die off, go off track, or get argumentitive...

We have a chance to give a lot of insight to a lot of people about what life is really like here!

[Minervah]

My last job before retiring was with a very large insurance company. I was really surprised at all the outsourcing it did. I don't mean only our IT work but other jobs as well. As an example, our HR department was cut down to practically nothing with the job of screening and interviewing going out to temp agencies for the lower level jobs and head hunters for the higher level ones. Part of my job was to take the job seekers from the temp agency and see what kind of fit they would be for whatever department. It was also my job to train them along with my many other tasks. The longer I worked for the company the more jobs I was given as departments were consolidated and people were laid off. I trained people for many entry level positions.

People think of outscoring as losing jobs to other countries but in this case, as in other departments that is not necessarily true. It is less expensive to contract out jobs to other companies right here. Less to pay in benefits and salaries I suppose. Besides HR and IT, other departments I was told were doing the same when feasible.

If this is indicative of other large or for that matter even smaller companies, I think that the face of office work is definitely changing and the abundance of jobs that once were available for people just out of college with liberal arts degrees or even just high school diplomas are no longer available. Of course, I suppose people could find jobs in the places in which they are being replaced but it takes fewer people and I would guess the salaries are less because their tasks are part of other jobs.