Posted on 05/17/2009 4:17:55 PM PDT by reaganaut1
In October, as the stock market tanked and the economy shed 400,000 jobs, Matt Singer moved from Oxnard, Calif. to Portland, Ore. He didn't have a job, but he was attracted to the city's offbeat culture and hungered for change. Mr. Singer's plan was to get an editing or writing gig at an alternative weekly newspaper, the job he was doing in California.
Seven months later, the 26-year-old is still without a steady job -- and still here. "I wasn't really aware of how bad the job situation was at the time," says Mr. Singer.
This drizzly city along the Willamette River has for years been among the most popular urban magnets for college graduates looking to start their careers in a small city of like-minded folks. Now the jobs are drying up, but the people are still coming. The influx of new residents is part of the reason the unemployment rate in the Portland metropolitan area has more than doubled to 11.8% over the past year, and is now above the national average of 8.9%. City of Youth
Some new arrivals are burning through their savings as they hunt for jobs that no longer exist. Some are returning home. Others are settling for low-paying jobs they are overqualified for.
With his search for a journalism job coming up short, Mr. Singer has spent thousands in savings, and is now earning $12 an hour at a temporary job scanning loan documents, a task he says is so mind-numbing he listens to his iPod all day. "Careerwise, it's definitely not what I'd like to be doing," says Mr. Singer.
The worst recession in a generation is disrupting migration patterns and overturning lives across the country. Yet, cities like Portland, along with Austin, Texas, Seattle and others, continue to be draws ...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
No worries. This is the ‘change’ they voted for.
“$12 an hour at a temporary job scanning loan documents, a task he says is so mind-numbing he listens to his iPod all day”
Dang. New hires at the factory I am at get $12/hour and have to work their butt off. I won’t tell ‘em about this!
“....and is now earning $12 an hour at a temporary job scanning loan documents, a task he says is so mind-numbing he listens to his iPod all day”.
Can’t even properly do this job, apparently.
At some point we’ll wake up and realize most of the middle class jobs that kids like this might have gone into have gone overseas. Doesn’t matter whether it was a blue collar job at the plant or a white collar type job being a supervisor at a customer service center.
We’re in a race to the bottom. Plenty of work for janitors and also for some high end management. But the jobs that the large “middle” had are all now in India, China, Mexico. Or they are on there way there.
Bush's fault.
Where I sit at this moment in Austin, I see no less than eight high-rise condo towers that are under construction or have just been completed. The minimum buy in to one of the condos is 500k.
The city is full of young people, most of them making tons of money. The economy is still good, better than any other city in Texas.
And yes, the city is very liberal even in the wealthiest neighborhoods.
It is a strange town.
Interesting article, as it mentions two cities I have been in recently, Portland and Tulsa... :-)
Unemployment in Austin is about half that of Portland and less than the national average, so I don’t get the generalization in the headline. Another lazy reporter arriving at unsupported conclusions.
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/03/23/daily48.html
You said — i think someone here is mistaken. this fellow is doing exactly what he is qualified to do, otherwise he would be doing something else.
—
Well, I would disagree with that one, in this kind of a market. When unemployment goes up and you’ve got the kinds of factory closings and layoffs that I’ve been reading about for months — it’s *for sure* that a great number of people are going to be taking jobs (if they can get one at all) that they are over-qualified for.
That’s something that I would call “self-evident”...
That kid has a tough life. When I graduated colllege in Austin, the economy was down and I had to drive a cab to make house payments and help support my girlfriend and wife who was at NYU Law.
I later moved to NYC and worked as bartender and made crazy money.
*Seven months later, the 26-year-old is still without a steady job — and still here. “I wasn’t really aware of how bad the job situation was at the time,” says Mr. Singer.*
Did this guy think that Portland had a glut of “alternative newspapers” which would hire him to write? Cliff’s sake—the mainstream newspapers are all going broke!
And he counters “mind-numbing” jobs with an iPod? Isn’t 80 percent of the drivel people listen to on iPods mind-numbing enough?
Why can’t this guy do what everyone else with a rotten job does? Drink. Or, since he’s in Oregon, marry a gay and then get a lethal script of drugs from a merciful doc.
Shouldn't that be "... for which they are overqualified" ?
Typical idiots. They go off to the big city with no job, no real skills, and they expect to find a posh job.
Meanwhile, the young adult who spent time building their resume and took the time to find a job in the city before going will do well, but be surrounded by these idiots.
“Stories like this illustrate why sending more people to college is not necessarily a good thing — it spoils some people for useful work.”
And it teaches them to learn how to live beyond their means. A lot of people who get degrees aren’t getting ones that ensure a steady future. Many students are not learning about ‘process,’ and how people end up with the ‘cool’ jobs in the first place.
Bartending is my goal right now. I’ll make scads and start my business. I already have partnerships and I hope to have more by the end of the month.
To say nothing of the volunteer work I have signed up for and the CPR training course I hope to complete at the nearby fire station (free!). I signed up for 36 hours a week volunteering and once that kicks in, I’ll have those hour pins they hand out in a few months and be merrily earning experience, credentials, and recommendations and references.
Plus experience in a more professional medical setting, a step up from my experience in the local free clinic. Perhaps some of these dips could spend time volunteering and gaining experience, but I think that would bored the little hippies because it would mean meeting a disciplined schedule.
Girlfriend AND wife at NYU? I bet you sure hoped they never had a class together!! (Just kidding:)
“When I graduated colllege in Austin, the economy was down and I had to drive a cab to make house payments and help support my girlfriend and wife who was at NYU Law”
Having a girlfriend and wife is expensive in any economy.
Well, I wasn't a hooker or anything like that. Just low paying, dirty, grungy things until something better came along.
perhaps. if i gain a skill and move to a place where it is not needed then would i be overqualified? i might be. i might also be an idiot.
But what I find is that the liberals in Austin don’t take things too seriously, for the most part they are friendly to conservatives that they disagree with, I can deal with Austin liberals, and I would live there in a heartbeat if I could.
Dallas liberals on the other hand, are just as intolerant as San Francisco liberals.
Bingo! The market is a harsh mistress, isn’t she? Train yourself for a dead-end, low-paying career in an obscure tiny market and guess what you end up doing for a living?
What does a good barman in NYC bring in monthly?
How many of the cars have the “Keep Austin Weird” bumper stickers?
Depends on how many hands he has and how troubled he is by conscience.
What do you call a person with a degree in journalism?
Waiter.
Nam Vet
Note: The days of the “unskilled factory job” as a ticket to the middle class only lasted from 1948 until 1972 due to the lack of competition during that period.
Not exactly "Grapes of Wrath" material.
Yeah then reality sets in. What a bitch. Especially when they have to pay their “fair share” in taxes.
Damn here we go again back to the 70’s. What does a journalism major say in his first job?
Do you want fries with that?
That is the sort of errant pedantry up with which I shall not put! (Quoting Winston Churchill, I think.)
Heh heh.
Ed
Way too many. I seem to remember a bumper sticker that said something like “In Dripping Springs we say “Keep the Weird in Austin”. I like that one.
Not many these days, but the most popular bumper sticker by far is Obama. During the election season, it had to be at least one in five cars in central Austin.
“What do you call a person with a degree in journalism?”
My troops called me “Sir”.
When I went to NYC in the late 1980’s I was broke was about to lose my house ,had a ton of debt and a wife in law school. Her cousin got me a job in NYC gay bar and the first night I worked I made a few thousand. The patrons knew my story and treated me well.
Back then a good night was five or six hundred.
*When I graduated colllege in Austin, the economy was down and I had to drive a cab to make house payments and help support my girlfriend and wife who was at NYU Law.*
University towns have very well-educated cabbies. I remember stories about PhD’s driving cabs back when I was in uni.
Those jobs will return once the marketplace resets the price to a level that makes it worthwhile for them to return.
People need to understand that the whole entitlement culture is going to have to change and it will, whether they like it or not.
Well part of your problem is that you should have had only one, not two! ;^)
I was curious about that, too. It didn’t seem right to put Austin with Portland. Apples and oranges. *scratches head*
Back then it was a week’s pay, maybe more, for most people; good deal!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.