Thinking of relocating to Spokane...Bad move or Good move???? (Seattle: fit in, rentals)

[orygun]

Originally Posted by mes3fils

Following up on all of the so-called jobs you found could actually prove to be very difficult to actually 'get' hired into one of them.

Here is a quote from someone infact that posted very recently here regarding yes, a nursing job!!!

"As a nurse, it has taken longer than it should to find work here."

I bet that was me with the nursing comment. It is VERY true. There are TONS of jobs in the paper but actually getting one is another story. It must be highly competitive. I have good qualifications and good references, BUT, I don't know someone here and am not from here and that makes a difference. My ex has spent his time here with the temp agency which landlords apparently consider worthless for an employment reference. He has decent qualifications for delivery and production work, filled out several dozen applications and got one phone call from someone he couldn't even understand! It's crazy. Jobs he was qualified for and applied to continued to run in the classifieds. Really frustrating. He had one guy tell him it wasn't the job for him because he was new to the area and they felt as a delivery driver he had to know it here. Bologna! He then got hired by someone else and is working as a delivery driver. There is this concept of actually learning? And he could learn the area. Crazy making. The job he was told wasn't for him seemed like something that actually fit him.

[orygun]

Originally Posted by metrospokane

Yes, but if that home is well cared for, clean and has respectable people living there who care about their neighborhood, then what is the problem? That the home is worth only $85k or is it something else? Isn't economic diversity in a neighborhood healthy?

If it is worth $85K then respectable people aren't living there. Housing prices for a decent place are well above that.

[metrospokane]

Originally Posted by orygun

If it is worth $85K then respectable people aren't living there.

amazing...

[mes3fils]

Originally Posted by orygun

I bet that was me with the nursing comment. It is VERY true. There are TONS of jobs in the paper but actually getting one is another story. It must be highly competitive. I have good qualifications and good references, BUT, I don't know someone here and am not from here and that makes a difference. My ex has spent his time here with the temp agency which landlords apparently consider worthless for an employment reference. He has decent qualifications for delivery and production work, filled out several dozen applications and got one phone call from someone he couldn't even understand! It's crazy. Jobs he was qualified for and applied to continued to run in the classifieds. Really frustrating. He had one guy tell him it wasn't the job for him because he was new to the area and they felt as a delivery driver he had to know it here. Bologna! He then got hired by someone else and is working as a delivery driver. There is this concept of actually learning? And he could learn the area. Crazy making. The job he was told wasn't for him seemed like something that actually fit him.

Yet no one can get one of them! You wrote exactly what I meant orygun. The fact that the paper is full of jobs means nothing. Perfect example here. And yes you were the one I quoted.

I have the latest 2007 Market Fact Book from Spokane and one day soon I will post the stats on their employment situation....major employers etc.....and I am sure it will be to some's dismay.

[kena]

A few recent press pieces on the employment picture in Spokane. In general, there are good jobs to be had in Spokane but if you're really looking to work for a large corporation it will be more difficult compared to larger markets.

Excerpts from a pretty fair article: The Spokesman-Review.com (http://www.spokesmanreview.com/business/story.asp?ID=203743 - broken link)

Back in the day when the closing of The Davenport Hotel was the big economic news, and it went down from there, Spokane leaders fretted about the flight of their children, and personal incomes falling further behind the national average. Not to mention Seattle's.

Less so today. Except, of course, for Seattle.

The 2006 personal income numbers released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show Spokane's rate of increase for total personal and per capita income edged ahead of the national rate. Barely, but ahead. By 6.9 percent for Spokane compared with 6.3 percent for the nation in the case of personal income, and 5.4 percent compared with 5.3 percent in per capita income.

On the ground, where income means wages, Spokane's gain was "gargantuan." More importantly, it establishes a better foundation for future increases than more volatile rent and investment income, he says, noting the income gains were relatively well distributed among the lower, middle and upper classes.

reater Spokane Incorporated has embraced "vitals" – income, education, and commuting times among them – to benchmark itself against other communities. Last year set the bar for income growth high. Despite his pessimism, Zahir says he can find nothing negative among the indicators he watches.

Anecdotally, the city even seems to be retaining its young talent, he says.

The vital of all vitals.

Excerpts another recent article on the labor market from the Journal of Business:

Spokane Journal of Business - The Business Newspaper For The Inland Northwest (http://www.spokanejournal.com/spokane_id=article&sub=3250 - broken link)

As Spokane’s labor market continues to tighten, employers are left struggling to find workers, and are stepping up their recruiting efforts as a result.

The labor shortage spans a broad spectrum of industries. Manufacturers and contractors are turning down jobs due to a lack of workers, financial institutions are upping the ante in their pitched competition for personnel, and health-care providers are scrambling to find nurses. Staffing agencies also are feeling the pinch.

In May, the Spokane-area unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level in nearly nine years. As an example of employers’ desperation in such a market, MacKay says that five years ago, businesses would recruit community college students a few months before they graduated. Now, employers are hiring students in the beginning of their first year of school, because they want to snatch them up before someone else does, he says.

The trend might well continue. A recent survey by the local office of Manpower Inc. found that 43 percent of the Spokane-area employers interviewed planned to hire more employees in the third quarter of this year, up from 40 percent last year. Another 44 percent planned to maintain their current staffing levels, and 10 percent expected to reduce their staffing levels. Three percent said they were unsure about their hiring plans.

“Spokane has generally lagged the trends, but I’m expecting that wages are going to have to go up and people are going to have to find more creative ways to recruit workers, perhaps by hiring for more part-time positions,” Droz says.

One of the main challenges Rockwood Clinic PS, of Spokane, is facing involves finding experienced registered nurses (RNs) and senior-level management personnel, says Laura Hill, associate administrator of human resources at Rockwood. RNs experienced in surgery, oncology, and cardiology are particularly hard to find, and Rockwood also struggles to find information-technology (IT) workers, she says.

Engineers have become scarce in Spokane, too, as they have nationwide, says Marlys Buzby, human resources manager at FLSmidth RAHCO, a Spokane engineer of equipment used in mining and agriculture.

[WendyK]

Good data Kena. Thanks for posting that info...Maybe this says that Spokane is experiencing a growth spurt and companies are still adjusting to their higher employment needs? The nurses I've met have all had no trouble getting jobs, and some have had multiple offers from hospitals. That's not to say that others have not had good experiences landing positions. I've also met nurses who are burned out and leave Spokane to go to other markets.

[99203]

I recently (6 months ago) went though a job search in Information Technology in Spokane. There were quite a few possibilities and I ended up with a job that I am happy with. I've been recruiting for other positions since I started and it seems to me that there are more good jobs than there are good people. We fill a lot of jobs with contractors/temporary help because we can't find enough qualified and experienced people. Many of the jobs are in Liberty Lake, but there are also jobs nearer downtown.

[orygun]

Originally Posted by WendyK

That's not to say that others have not had good experiences landing positions.

I think we have had just bad luck since the day we arrived in town. Don't know why, but it is. What was interesting in the nursing hunt is the time it took to get to the stage of interviews was WEEKS. I am used to getting employed right now. And even after I did get a new job, the old one wouldn't work with me on doing part-time hours during orientation so we parted ways, they wouldn't let me start until the beginning of a pay period which was another two weeks! I thought that was incredibly silly.

[ppoitras]

I think the CDA area is much nicer and Spokane is still a quick 30 min drive...

[orygun]

One of the first things I heard after moving to Spokane was how quickly I would learn to get out of the town or the county as far as housing goes. I think I would have faired better in CDA if I could have tolerated the commute to Spokane.