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I've seen two references in this thread to the "dismal" job market in the USA.
I must wonder, if it is "dismal" right now, what would it be called if it got only 2 or 3 percent worse? What about 5 percent worse? What about 10 percent worse? What's worse than dismal?
Okay, I, for one, don't think the overall job market in the USA is anything less than overflowing with opportunity. Sure, certain localities are better than others, but we have an employment rate of about 95 percent in the USA right now, one of the highest employment rates in the world? The way I see it, 95 percent of the people who want a job can find one, and if you consider yourself in the top 95 percent in your field, you should have no problem finding a job.
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the USA is at an all-time high, as it is every year in the USA - unlike some nations, such as Germany, who are experiencing a downturn in their nation's GDP. And our GDP rating per capita is the second highest in all the world, only slightly behind Luxembourg, but about 50 percent better than Canada, Australia and Great Britain. (GDP is important because it measures output - specifically worker output.)
The total number of jobs held in the USA is at an all-time high. Not only have the employment percentages been increasing, but the number of people working is also at an all-time high - and this takes into consideration an ever increasing population due to immigration.
Don't listen to the defeatists. Come to America with the attitude that you will be defeated, and you will be. Come to America with the attitude that you will succeed, and you will.
The "doom-and-gloomers" - the people who always see "what's wrong" - will never be as successful as those who look for what's right. A 95 percent employment rate (considering 3 percent will ALWAYS be unemployed - mostly by choice) is absolutely fantastic. Unless, of course, you consider yourself in that 2 or 3 percent of people at the bottom of the ambition and intelligence heap, which I doubt you do.
I'm not that familiar with our Pacific Northwest, but from what I've read, it's slightly below the national averages on the employment scale. The national employment rate, for example, is at about 95 percent right now, while it is slightly lower in Washington State at about 94 percent, and Oregon at 93.5 percent. Washington D.C is the lowest at 92.5 percent. (Someone else said Washington D.C. was the best - I wonder where that information came from?) The biggest boom areas in the USA right now are in the southwest, specifically Las Vegas and Phoenix. Missouri, in the Midwest, is experiencing great growth, as is Colorado, Nevada, and Arizona. But an impressive and optimistic trend is that, as a national average, around 200,000 new jobs are being made available each and every month. (At this point the "doom-and-gloomers will say something like, "Yea, but it's the least desirable types of jobs, and the low paying jobs that are being filled." Well, don't fall into the trap of becoming a doom-and-gloomer. You will find that which you seek.)
An "overview" of economics in the USA (cut and pasted from listed source):
The US has the largest and most technologically powerful economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $37,600. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. US business firms enjoy considerably greater flexibility than their counterparts in Western Europe and Japan in decisions to expand capital plant, lay off surplus workers, and develop new products. At the same time, they face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in US markets. US firms are at or near the forefront in technological advances, especially in computers and in medical, aerospace, and military equipment, although their advantage has narrowed since the end of World War II. The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households. The years 1994-2000 witnessed solid increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment to below 5%. The year 2001 saw the end of boom psychology and performance, with output increasing only 0.3% and unemployment and business failures rising substantially. The response to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 showed the remarkable resilience of the economy. Moderate recovery took place in 2002, with the GDP growth rate rising to 2.45%. A major short-term problem in first half 2002 was a sharp decline in the stock market, fueled in part by the exposure of dubious accounting practices in some major corporations. The war in March/April 2003 between a US-led coalition and Iraq shifted resources to military industries and introduced uncertainties about investment and employment in other sectors of the economy. Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups.
I think it's amazing that people "repeat" those "dismal" reports only because that's what they might hear on the news. If people turned off their television sets and radios, and only "reported" on what they, themselves, were experiencing or were seeing first-hand, absolutely everything would sound like it's coming up roses, or at least, almost everything. Sure, people are struggling to "make ends meet", so to speak, but my folks experienced the same thing, as did theirs, and every other person who has experienced "life". Someone (in a different thread, I believe) said to a job-seeker that experience was everything. Well, as important as experience might be, I would place attitude and outlook well above experience on any "importance" scale.
By the way, welcome to America - the greatest nation on the face of the Earth (chuckle chuckle).
Links and/or sources:
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/state_unemployment/
http://www.nationmaster.com/ (This is an absolutely GREAT Web site. I use it a lot to gather various information.)
By the way (again), the "IT job market", whatever that really is, can be rather misleading. For example, is a sole network administrator for a legal firm (or any other type of firm) considered to be in the IT field or the legal field? An IT professional, in my opinion, can find a job in any field, not just the "IT field", whatever that really is.
