hows the economy in your area?

[97guns]

I live in the California and its in the top 10 largest economies in the world but I seem to be seeing increasing homelessness and joblessness

The last company I worked for, a beer distributer just sold and is consolidating with a neighboring distributer laying everyone off, around 200 people. I just talked to a merchandiser today and he is up **** creek without a paddle, with no education he ain't gonna be able to replace his $22/hr job, he will have to take on 2 jobs to produce the same yearly salary.

In fact I know several people with multiple jobs. one guy that works with a friend of mine drives a transit bus, works in a grocery store and drives for uber yet he sees nothing wrong with his lifestyle. He actually brags to my buddy that he works 3 jobs, ain't nothing to be proud of but its the new way of merely surviving

My same friend works in the grocery store and many of his customers are either jobless or working multiple jobs and several of them working jobs with no health benefits.

I do not trust govt supplied numbers, I think they are all smoke and mirrors

[maynard]

No major layoffs around here in a while. Woodward Governor is an aerospace manufacturer and they just opened a new $250mm facility and is in the process of filling 660 high paid technical jobs. Loves Park, Illinois. I personally don't know anyone working multiple jobs.

I would think working multiple jobs is more caused by California's high cost of living, no?

[snafu]

We're the Oil patch and there have been thousands of layoffs from exec suite to rig hands and every support business like camp food services and farmers. We're just starting to see changes in housing/rental market as people feel the difference between earned income and unemployment benefits.

I happened to drive past our auto 'mall' area and was shocked to see huge fields of new cars and trucks that haven't sold. Noticeably see more older vehicles on the roads which has been unusual here.

Our dollar is very weak and I figure significant numbers of snowbirds will be staying home this winter. It will seriously impact travel service providers and favorite USA destination malls who need foreigners to stay afloat.

[disneysteve]

Economy around here is fine as far as I can tell. I haven't seen any more than the usual number of businesses close. There are constantly new businesses opening, new stores being built, and old stores being remodeled and expanded. Restaurants are always busy. Both upscale and more mainstream stores seem to be doing fine. A new outlet center opened nearby recently and we were there a couple of weeks ago and it was packed with people toting as many bags as they could carry. The local casinos are always busy when we visit. Theaters have lines of people waiting to see the latest releases.

As for jobs, I have many patients who are business owners and the most common complaint I hear is that they are unable to fill vacant job slots. Either applicants fail the drug test or fail the background check or they hire someone who then can't seem to be bothered to show up on a dependable basis and they have to let them go.

[feh]

Anecdotes aren't evidence of anything. Government reports are accurate.

[rennigade]

Economy is booming in the metro DC area, as usual. Every other week it seems an old building is being torn down and a new condo building is going in its place. A restaurant goes out of business and a new one is in within 2 months. Prices ever increasing here as is has been the past couple decades. No shortage of jobs that I know of.

[ua_guy]

Things are good. Around here, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Paccar, Alaska Airlines, and Google are all hiring for corporate, skilled positions and adding new jobs.

At my employer, we also have vacancies and new positions are being approved to keep up with growth and our list of projects for 2016 and beyond.

Like Steve pointed out, some of these vacancies are long-standing at our company. I've helped interview several candidates and we haven't found someone with the required skillset. These are full-time, salaried positions with benefits.

A contact I have at a local coffee outfit is having the same problem. They are trying to recruit fresh out of college right now "you bring the education, we'll build the employee" -kind of thing. Edit: They are also aggressively hiring military service members who have finished their tours and are looking for work. I remember him telling me they just brought a guy on board, 22 years old, fresh out of the air force, assigned an HR resource to him, first to help in clearing hurdles for his discharge paperwork, then, to help him look for his first apartment in the area (he had never signed a private lease before). No joke.

Another friend who works for the corporate end of a railroad says rail is 'up'. His company is doing very well.

Here's some other things I know about the local economy, and the economy at large.

Housing prices in the northwest are rising. We're back in the land of multiple, competitive, full price++ offers, selling in under a week.

My own property has seen more than a 25% appreciation over the last two years without doing anything to it. Statistics cite a mass influx of people in the area due to job creation since 2012 and increased demand for land and housing.

A business contact in my local town just sold his family property to a developer. The land is now the future site of about 75 new single family homes.

The stock market, while affected globally, is still up. The things I've been able to invest in are positive.

Gas prices are down. The Saudis are tanking the value of oil. It's putting Russia out of business, so to speak. And our own domestic operations here in the US are to the point where it's almost not cost-effective to produce our own, depending on the method. This is the downside of having explosive domestic oil job growth when prices were high. But, I'm pretty happy about only paying about $2.45 for regular at the pump right now. Wish it was less.

September BLS reports on productivity show a 3% gain in US worker productivity. Inflation was cool. Yet, wages didn't grow. Gentle inflation with high productivity usually gives rise to wages without really increasing inflation but employers held back. One reason is that it's more profitable to not give employees big raises.

The labor participation is the "worst" it's been in over 30 years. Critics point to an underlying, unhealthy economy where the unemployed have simply given up looking for work due to a lack of job growth. But other signs of a healthy economy change the diagnosis, including the presence of actual job growth. It also happens that one of the largest demographic populations to ever move through time, the Baby Boomers, are retiring in record numbers.

[bennkar]

I'm in rennigade's area and I agree, around here it is business as usual. I am sure there are areas in the U.S. where a slow down is very noticeable, but around here isn't one of them. Though that said, supposedly there are higher rates of vacancies locally in office space (like 5% above normal). Though I think that is isolated to certain locations. Traffic is as bad or worse than usual, at least for my commute, so I can't see how things are slowing down.

[disneysteve]

Though that said, supposedly there are higher rates of vacancies locally in office space (like 5% above normal). Though I think that is isolated to certain locations.

I just read an article in the Philly paper about how the trend in recent years to convert old offices to condos and retail has now resulted in a shortage of office space. One of the biggest real estate firms just announced that they are rehabbing an old office building into a new office building to address this need.

Business in this part of the country is booming.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Seems to be booming. It was booming where we left. So everywhere seems good.

[disneysteve]

So everywhere seems good.

There are certainly areas where the economy is struggling, especially where there was one major employer that shut down or significantly downsized. And, from what I read, rural areas aren't great.

But metropolitan areas, big cities, are doing well. Demographically, there has been a growing trend of people moving back into cities.

This is why looking at government/national stats is pretty worthless. If you want to know how the economy is doing, you need to focus on the specific area that you are interested in.

[Spiffster]

Economy seems good here in the Denver area. Seeing more "now hiring" signs than usual actually... My employer is constantly trying to hire both entry-level and experienced engineers. I think those left without work (at least in Denver) need to look a little harder... or perhaps they are too busy playing the victim, I dont know.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Boston metro here. Economy is pretty gangbusters and if you are in IT, or even better, have programming experience, you can basically write your own ticket.

[Butterscotch]

Kind of lame here in Maryland. There are jobs, but they all seem to pay around 40k/yr. It seems like a lot of employers have decided that people can just get by on $20/hr so that is what they are willing to pay. This is across marketing, accounting, helpdesk type jobs that my friends and I have seen. We all have business degrees from good schools, but so does everyone else it seems. Friend who works in HR (also making about 40k) says they are still seeing hundreds on resumes per job posting so I guess a lot of people are still out of work, or looking for better work.

Unless we want to get MBAs we are kind of stuck in a salary rut right now. Just scraping by...Better than sinking, I guess.

[ua_guy]

Kind of lame here in Maryland. There are jobs, but they all seem to pay around 40k/yr. It seems like a lot of employers have decided that people can just get by on $20/hr so that is what they are willing to pay. This is across marketing, accounting, helpdesk type jobs that my friends and I have seen. We all have business degrees from good schools, but so does everyone else it seems. Friend who works in HR (also making about 40k) says they are still seeing hundreds on resumes per job posting so I guess a lot of people are still out of work, or looking for better work.

Unless we want to get MBAs we are kind of stuck in a salary rut right now. Just scraping by...Better than sinking, I guess.

From my experience as a grad with a business degree from a good school, as well as others I've witnessed ended up in the same state of job-peril post-graduation, this is normative.

With business degrees, you have to chase a specific discipline or job function within an industry, and it usually starts with taking a low paying job in business operations. Operations doesn't pay well in most fields. And aside from operational staff, most of what businesses need isn't business degree-specific. But a business degree can be a tool to wedge-in to a discipline or function within business that pays much better.

Sometimes it also means chasing a job elsewhere where there's more opportunity or a lower cost of living. But that's true of the economy as a whole.