The Best Cities for Jobs

[dummass]

Quotes from the article:

This year's "best places for jobs" list is easily the most depressing since we began compiling our annual rankings almost a decade ago.

At the top of the list stands No. 1 Jacksonville, N.C., whose economy grew 1.4%, paced by 3.3% growth in government jobs. Fast growth, however, is not a stranger to this Southern community, whose employment base has grown 22.8% since 1998. The area includes the massive Marine Base at Camp Lejeune, a beehive of activity since the U.S. started waging two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Fort Hood-Temple-Fort Hood in Texas came in fourth place overall with Fayetteville, N.C., home to the Army's Fort Bragg, placing sixth and Lawton, Okla., home of Fort Sill, close behind at No. 7. Similar explanations can apply to war economy hot spots Fort Stewart (No. 20 overall) and Warner Robbins (No. 26), both in Georgia.

http://www.newgeography.com/content/...y+about+places)

[don]

Re: The Best Cities for Jobs

April 20, 2010
A State With Plenty of Jobs but Few Places to Live

By MONICA DAVEY

WILLISTON, N.D. — When Joey Scott arrived here recently from Montana, he had no trouble finding work — he signed almost immediately with a company working to drill in the oil fields. But finding housing was another matter.

Every motel in town was booked, some for months in advance. Every apartment complex, even every mobile home park, had a waiting list. Mr. Scott found himself sleeping in his pickup truck in the Wal-Mart parking lot, shaving and washing his hair in a puddle of melted snow.

“I’ve got a pocketful of money, but I just can’t find a room,” said Mr. Scott, 25.

North Dakota has a novel problem: plenty of jobs, but nowhere to put the people who hold them.

The same forces that have resulted in more homelessness elsewhere — unemployment, foreclosure, economic misery — have pushed laid off workers from California, Florida, Minnesota, Michigan and Wyoming to abundant jobs here, especially in the booming oil fields.

But in this city rising from the long empty stretches of North Dakota, hundreds are sleeping in their cars or living in motel rooms, pup tents and tiny campers meant for weekend getaways in warmer climes. They are staying on cots in offices and in sleeping bags in the concrete basements of people they barely know.

North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, 4 percent, but advocates for the homeless say the number of people they see with nowhere to live — a relatively rare occurrence here until now — grew to 987 in 2009 from 832 in 2008, an increase of about 19 percent.

And the problem is certain to worsen this summer as oil companies call for more rigs and thousands more workers.

“It’s hard to know where this might end,” said E. Ward Koeser, the mayor of Williston, who met this month with the governor of North Dakota to plead for state help with the housing crisis. “It’s the one thing that sometimes wakes me up in the morning and doesn’t let me go to sleep,” he said, acknowledging that most mayors can only dream of having such a riddle.

Still, where will all these happily employed newcomers live?

“I don’t know,” said Mr. Koeser, whose city had about 12,000 people at last count, but may now be closer to 15,000. “We literally have no place.”



Jana and Robert Stout stayed in motel after motel for four months, not finding one that could keep them for long. When Mr. Stout left for his oil job in the mornings, Ms. Stout climbed into her Buick and began the hunt for the next place. Often she sat much of the day in motel parking lots, waiting for vacancies to open up.

A few weeks ago, the Stouts got off a waiting list at a motel that had been booked for two years. They can stay there indefinitely for $450 a month. The room is tiny, big enough for a bed, a television and a hot plate. Ms. Stout’s grown daughter and granddaughter may need to stay on the floor, if they cannot find a place.

Still, the Stouts said they would never consider returning to Wyoming, where they used to live. “For what?” Ms. Stout said. “If I was home right now, I would be way worse. There is potential here.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/21/us/21ndakota.html

Yes sirree, it's real nice....rubbin' elbows with Morgan Stanley

[Slimprofits]

Re: The Best Cities for Jobs

They can stay there indefinitely for $450 a month.

wow

contrast that with Eastern Massachusetts, just for example.

plenty of $8 - $10 dollar / hour - part and full time jobs that need to be filled.

Good luck finding an apartment for less than $800 a month and that's only in some parts of a few cities (for example - Lynn, Malden).

[Ghent12]

Re: The Best Cities for Jobs

wow

contrast that with Eastern Massachusetts, just for example.

plenty of $8 - $10 dollar / hour - part and full time jobs that need to be filled.

Good luck finding an apartment for less than $800 a month and that's only in some parts of a few cities (for example - Lynn, Malden).

Just share a room with fifteen or sixteen of your closest friends and relatives.

[dcarrigg]

Re: The Best Cities for Jobs

wow

contrast that with Eastern Massachusetts, just for example.

plenty of $8 - $10 dollar / hour - part and full time jobs that need to be filled.

Good luck finding an apartment for less than $800 a month and that's only in some parts of a few cities (for example - Lynn, Malden).

Yes, rent is out of control from north of Portland, ME straight down through Richmond, VA. Live in the corridor - pay $800/mo for a studio - not up to code - and maybe in a bad neighborhood.

But vacancy rates have been rising steadily: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0614064020100107. Prices should follow. Not surprisingly, rent has been the biggest percentage increase in expenditures in the region, besides medical care:

New England Consumer Price Index Card

Consumer Price Indexes for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city averages and selected areas, (1982-84=100 unless otherwise noted)(not seasonally adjusted)

Item	U.S. City Average		Northeast region		Boston- Brockton- Nashua
	Mar 2010	Percent change from Mar 2009	Mar 2010	Percent change from Mar 2009	Mar 2010	Percent change from Mar 2009
All Items	217.631	2.3	233.188	2.6	237.986	2.5
All Items (1967 = 100) (1)	651.925		367.200		691.714
Food and Beverages	219.378	0.3	224.937	0.7	232.017	1.3
Food	219.032	0.2	224.365	0.6	231.694	1.0
Food at home	215.623	-0.7	221.770	-0.3	222.801	-0.2
Food away from home	224.991	1.2	230.730	1.6	246.679	2.3
Alcoholic beverages	222.521	1.1	231.407	2.1	238.259	4.6
Housing	216.023	-0.6	243.849	0.4	233.943	-0.6
Shelter	248.052	-0.6	291.231	0.6	273.353	0.1
Rent of primary residence (2)	249.089	0.2	285.441	1.2	276.239	-0.5
Owners' equivalent rent of residences (2) (3) (4)	256.272	0.0	303.676	1.5	292.262	1.4
Owners' equivalent rent of primary residence (2) (3) (4)	256.266	0.0	303.676	1.5	292.262	1.4
Fuels and utilities	212.295	0.9	216.747	0.9	232.327	-3.1
Household energy	187.864	-0.5	200.609	0.2	200.762	-4.0
Gas (piped) and electricity (2)	191.280	-1.8	201.702	-3.7	203.768	-11.3
Electricity (2)	189.061	-0.5	192.783	0.5	190.903	-14.9
Utility (piped) gas service (2)	195.832	-5.5	209.913	-12.4	219.663	-4.0
Household furnishings and operations	126.750	-2.3	126.778	-1.8	123.341	-3.1
Apparel	122.073	-0.4	124.642	1.9	144.386	2.9
Transportation	192.130	13.3	191.142	12.1	181.551	13.2
Private transportation	187.796	13.8	185.227	12.7	180.796	14.0
Motor fuel	237.671	41.1	230.115	40.3	232.946	40.8
Gasoline	237.356	41.4	229.360	40.9	230.439	42.0
Medical Care	387.142	3.7	406.995	3.0	548.245	5.2
Recreation (5)	113.339	-1.1	117.868	0.4	122.207	1.3
Education and Communication (5)	129.236	2.4	133.228	2.2	138.247	2.2
Other Goods and Services	378.808	4.9	404.321	4.4	410.063	1.1
Energy	209.999	18.3	212.890	15.2	214.046	13.1
Footnotes (1) For the Northeast, December 1977 = 100. (2) This index series was calculated using a Laspeyres estimator. All other item stratum index series converted to a geometric means estimator in January, 1999. (3) Index is on a December 1982=100 base. (4) This index series underwent a change in composition in January 2010. The expenditure class now includes weight from secondary residences and has been be re-titled "Owners' equivalent rent of residences." The item stratum "Owners' equivalent rent of primary residence" excludes secondary residences. (5) Indexes are on a December 1997=100 base.
Northeast region includes the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Boston-Brockton-Nashua includes the PMSAs of Boston, Brockton, Fitchburg-Leominster, Lawrence, Lowell, Manchester, Nashua, New Bedford, Portsmouth-Rochester, and Worcester.

[don]

Re: The Best Cities for Jobs

Forgive me if I've told this story before.

I couple I know, when they graduated from college- he was an engineering major, she was education- had a bit of wanderlust and applied for jobs in Sioux Falls, South Dakota- many miles from their Northern California hometowns.

They were both delighted and a bit nonplussed by their reception. Sioux Falls couldn't believe they wanted to work in SD, living in California. He went to work for the building department, she as a school teacher.

They soon found out most people lived, at least initially, in mobile homes, so they bought one. They then found out that although some things were inexpensive by California standards, low salaries kept them more limited in their financial elbow room then if they had stayed in Cali. The husband quickly realized the reason his fellow building inspectors all worked weekend side jobs was because that was their 'disposal' income.

They lasted about a year and half and came home.