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Deal of the Day by AnnaMaria Andriotis (Author Archive)
5 Places With Promising Job Prospects
Each month, the unemployment numbers grow more staggering. Since January 2008, more than four million people have lost their jobs, pushing the nation's unemployment rate to 7.6% -- a 16-year high, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While no state's work force remains unscathed, some are faring better than others. Wyoming and the Dakotas, for example, boast unemployment rates of under 4% (well below the 9.3% that’s plaguing California), according to the BLS's statewide data for December. Meanwhile, certain metro areas in Texas, including Houston and Dallas, actually experienced job growth in 2008.
The economic stimulus plan proposed by President Obama could help stem some of the bleeding in other, harder hit parts of the country as well. The plan proposes to create (or save) three to four million jobs over the next two years through investments in infrastructure, health care, energy and other areas. Should the plan get passed, the rate at which job losses have been mounting could start to retreat as early as April, says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank.
For workers grappling with unemployment -- or foresee a layoff in their near future -- one way to focus your career search is to seek out regions of the country with the most favorable conditions (those with low unemployment rates and perhaps even job creation taking place) and could stand to benefit from the stimulus plan.
We took a look at the White House's stimulus plan and the BLS's state and metropolitan data to do just that. (The number of jobs the plan proposes to create can be found here. We divided those numbers by Census Bureau data on each state's labor force to figure out just how many jobs per capita the plan aims to create. On average, we calculated that one job per every 41 eligible workers in each state will be created or saved.)
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Wyoming, Utah, Washington DC-metro area, Oklahoma, Texas. Yeah, except for the fact that you have to live in these god-forsaken places...run along! Git yrself a job, little dogie! Pew. And I'll tell you why: The American Southwest is running out of water. Look at any map of the rainfall in the US, and you will see that much more of it falls east of the Mississippi than west. I have friends with a tiny little yard in San Diego, CA that pay $300/mo to keep their mossy grass a bright greenish-yellow. What are the oil men going to co-opt when the oil gig is up? Water. And you actually need water to live. So my assessment is you are setting yourself up to be pulled up by the short and curlies by the humanitarians that have brought you Afghanistan/Iraq. Good luck with that. Texas has Austin, and that's about it. The rest of the state trades off with Indiana and Florida every few years for the nation's worst water quality. It is a tax haven for companies that are sucking wind. Blockbuster was...(Read more of this comment)
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