Worrisome article about the job market in small/midsized cities (Raleigh: transplants, 2013)

[VASpaceMan]

We've just had a baby, don't like living in Northern Virginia/DC area, and are anxious to relocate to a midsized city like Raleigh/Durham. Lately, I've felt like the job market is keeping us trapped here (DC area), the job boards for RDU don't seem very inspiring and it seems like this situation isn't going to change anytime in the future.. might even get worse. I've even thought that it seems like jobs are gravitating more and more to specialized centers (New York/east coast mega-opolis, Silicon Valley, Houston, etc) and away from smaller cities and I found it disturbing that this article says pretty much that..

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/op...arkets.html?hp

[CHTransplant]

The Triangle area has been absorbing thousands of transplants each year for many years, and despite this influx our unemployment has been trending downward for the past few years since the recession. Clearly the area is adding many jobs each year. Heath care and education - two sectors specifically referenced in the article as high growth - are big here. We continue to be strong in high tech, even if it isn't the growth engine it was in the 80s and 90s. Life sciences - including biotech, pharmaceuticals, and ag/crop sciences - are doing very well here and have fueled much growth. It's not all wine and roses, but I would say the Triangle is not your average mid-sized market.

[michgc]

I don't know the job market overall in the US, but I will say anecdotally, that the job market seemed so much stronger when I lived in NoVA than while I live here. It seemed like jobs were all over the place in DC and if anyone wanted one and was fairly qualified, he could get something - not necessarily the ideal job, but something. Here there seems to be so much more competition for a job even if it's not the perfect one.

Of course it depends on your skills and the field you are in. But overall I could tell the difference from one place (NoVA) to the other (Triangle). Again, I could give anecdotal examples that would not necessarily represent the whole area but they are examples:

In NoVA:

-My friend who has a degree in something other than teaching did a summer program in VA to get a provisional teaching certificate and got a job at the beginning of the school year as a long-term sub in a great school in NoVA. She virtually didn't have to wait at all to find a job.
-I stopped working as a professional when my son was born in 2007. I applied for a non-professional part-time job in NoVA 2011 and got it on the spot.


In the Triangle:

-I applied for a part-time non-professional job here and within 2 days got a rejection email without even having an interview because "as you can understand, we had hundreds of applicants."
-My husband hires professionals for $35K - usually young graduates. He always tells me how grateful and thrilled they are when they are offered a positon. One woman screamed on the phone upon hearing the news.
-A neighbor recently got a good, professional job after having searched for almost 2 years.
-I remember reading on this board when the Mebane outlets opened up about the long line of people applying for jobs there. Never heard anything like that in NoVA.

Looking it up, this article says the unemployment rate in NoVA this past spring was 4% and 5.2% for the DC metro. area as a whole. Unemployment rate declines in Northern Virginia - INSIDENOVA.COM: Northern VA

Compare that to the Triangle where this past July the unemployment rate was 7.3%
Triangle unemployment rate remains unchanged in July | Economy | NewsObserver.com

That is a pretty big difference.

I remember during the start of the recession in NoVA, I kept saying, "what recession?" Everyone I knew was employed. People were going to restaurants, going on vacation, going to movies, etc. Bottom line is, it felt quite different when I moved here, regarding employment opportunities.

[poppydog]

I can't remember, VASpaceMan, what is your field?

[RedZin]

OP? Are you applying for jobs here?

[RoaminRebel]

NoVa obviously has the Federal Gov't workers. They get furloughed and then come back to work and are paid for the days they didn't work. Compare this to the private sector where thousands can be laid off just to bump the stock price up a bit and boost the compensation packages of those who receive their salaries in stock options.

The biotech industry (in the Triangle and everywhere else for that matter) isn't what it used to be. Wyeth was acquired and a number of people were laid off in the Triangle. Merk announced a company wide layoff of 8500 and most likely at least some of those people will be in the NC facilities.

I'm sure the denial committee will be in this thread shortly to whitewash anything I've said just now...

[VASpaceMan]

Originally Posted by michgc

I don't know the job market overall in the US, but I will say anecdotally, that the job market seemed so much stronger when I lived in NoVA than while I live here.

I can confirm that the job market here (NOVA) is practically like there is no recession. Pretty much anyone who wants a job can get one, and a good one, well paid and the specific kind of position they want. Everyone is aware of tons of people moving here from elsewhere because of the recession. Cranes, construction are everywhere.

[VASpaceMan]

Originally Posted by poppydog

I can't remember, VASpaceMan, what is your field?

My background is IT and many different industries. I'm currently an IT project manager.

[VASpaceMan]

Originally Posted by CHTransplant

The Triangle area has been absorbing thousands of transplants each year for many years, and despite this influx our unemployment has been trending downward for the past few years since the recession. Clearly the area is adding many jobs each year. Heath care and education - two sectors specifically referenced in the article as high growth - are big here. We continue to be strong in high tech, even if it isn't the growth engine it was in the 80s and 90s. Life sciences - including biotech, pharmaceuticals, and ag/crop sciences - are doing very well here and have fueled much growth. It's not all wine and roses, but I would say the Triangle is not your average mid-sized market.

The thing is this:
I like how the Triangle focuses on health care, medical research. However, I've travel quite a bit and I've been eyeballing, researching mid sized cities as possible relos and it appears that quite a few cities have repositioned themselves as centers of health care and education. Pittsburgh is one of the examples that comes to mind, it's cleaned itself up, is rebranding itself as a high quality of life area, attractive for families, focusing on tech, medicine and education. Sound familiar? It seems like every mid sized city I've visited lately is doing this. Not sure if they saw the success you guys were having and are trying to duplicated it.. If too many cities do this, there will be a saturation of the market. Of course, having the research triangle, Duke and UNC, you guys definitely have a leg up on the competition.

[RedZin]

Originally Posted by VASpaceMan

My background is IT and many different industries. I'm currently an IT project manager.

Sooo... are you actually applying for jobs?