Job market collapse has people packing

San Francisco Chronicle ^

[RCW2001]

Jobless and broke, Bryan Clouse sits among the dwindling possessions in his studio in San Francisco's Fillmore District getting ready to leave what he once thought was a computer nerd's promised land.

In a week, the 35-year-old programmer will load up a rented SUV and say goodbye to the city that has been his home for the past nine years. He will go to live with his grandparents in Brooklyn, Mich., a tiny town of brick storefronts and clapboard houses a few hours west of Detroit. There, with no rent to worry about, he will look for work.

[VOA]

Bryan Clouse, for his part, never grew fond of San Francisco.
"Over the years, it started getting dirtier and stinkier. It wears on you," he said.

I know it's a matter of personal taste, but my one side-trip to San Francisco
left me underwhelmed.
Dirty streets, stumbling bums, with a few nice vistas as a backdrop.

I'm sure this qualifies me as a person without class, but I'd take Los Angeles any day over
the self-important atmosphere of San Francisco.

But I bet it was one cool place back in the middle of the 1800s...

[Chad Fairbanks]

Great, now these liberals will spread across the land, and begin the same destructive cycle over again in another place...

[vannrox]

Its true. Sadly.

Out here in Boston, it has been called the "Job Less Recovery". The companies that have laid off are not hiring. And, companies that actually need people to fill openings are also not hiring. It's that everything has been on hold. I can't speak for the other areas and markets, but Engineering is chilled.

There are positions in Civil Engineering related fields, especially HVAC. There are openings in the Medical device development fields - if you have 10 years experience. But that is it. You would think that the Military would cause a hiring surge of Engineering talent. But that has not been the case.

Consumer Products are hiring for entry level positions in the SE. IT management and deployment is flat.

I myself have been unemployed since march. There are many companies that I talk to, but they are all "Window shopping". I will have to leave Boston in the near future. My "cheap" one bedroom apartment of $800/month will be out of my reach in a mere month. Compare that to the average one bedroom apartment of cost $1300/month. -And that is with a 45 minute commute!

[Teacher317]

will spread across the land, and begin the same destructive cycle over again in another place

locusts and viruses and liberals, oh my!

[watcher1]

misses the Bay Area's tolerance, openness and liberal political climate.

Poofta barf alert!

[Drango]

Yet the H1B program is thriving with thousands of foreign programmers coming into the country. Before anyone leaves, make sure you cast a ballot against the politicians that won't protect your job.

[tallhappy]

"The quality of life in the Bay Area has gone," Broner complained. "I've watched the whole thing go to hell in the last 20 years."

Yep. You'll notice he is from Oakland, not Michigan or Indiana.

It's because of goons like these guys who are moving back home.

There's an old bumper sticker -- welcome to California, now go home.

They are going to ruin Sacramento and Stockton etc... next.

The only good thing think I can say is maybe these two boys (36 and 45) will grow up now.

Moving to his grandparents house will probably make him grow up.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Well one has to eat. Go to Mexico or Asia all of our real jobs went to those locations.

[Chi-townChief]

No surprises here - We have worked hard on taxing and regulating our American manufacturing out of existence for the past 40 years.

[Temple Owl]

Fries with that?

[SauronOfMordor]

A day of reckoning will eventually come to SF, as its tax base leaves. There will be a point where the remaining taxpayers will be unable to support the welfare state

[kezekiel]

[VOA]

At least Jack In The Box has fun commercials.
Which is more than you can say for a lot of corporate America.

I especially like the parody of the GM "like a rock" pickup commercials.

[Tax Government]

SF 'exists' as a democrat-controlled city because it has been ripping off the Hetch Hetchy water system. Since SF refuses to formally declare this decades-old public-works project complete, a loophole in the enabling legislation lets SF siphon off water revenue for unrelated purposes.

The result? The system is falling into disrepair. For decades, money has been diverted to democrat-favoring social projects and income redistribution. Meanwhile, SF water rates in SF are far below average. The undermaintained Milpitas Calaveras dam, which stores water for the system, poses an earthquake and flood hazard to communities of Newark, Fremont and Union City. Because of the risk of it failing, the dam is kept only about 1/3 full.

Bottom line. SF demorats have been stealing the region's water revenue, and spending it for the benefit of SF and democrats in particular.

What can happen? Other communities in the area are now starting to force SF to do the right thing. And, when SF water rates triple, as they may, and the faucet of stolen revenue dries up, SF will lose its attractiveness to most of the low lifes Freepers hold in contempt.

[martin_fierro]

I love those JBox commercials.

The food's not bad either, although the uniformly (illegal?) Mexican staff pronounce "Jumbo Jack" as "Yumbo Yack".

"Curly Fries" also = "Korlee Fry".

[martin_fierro]

Great, now these liberals will spread across the land, and begin the same destructive cycle over again in another place...

If it's any comfort, plenty of us Bay Area Conservatives have also considered leaving. <|:)~

[SamAdams76]

Boston is one of the hardest hit areas and I am surprised that real estate hasn't taken a tumble here yet. The price of housing is simply astronomical. I pay $1300 for my mortgage and I'm one of the lucky ones. I know many who pay well in excess of $2,000 a month for housing. If they lose their job, they are in deep crap.

My company hasn't hired anybody locally since late 2000. What few employees we lost were not replaced and we are truly running lean & mean. As a result, the company's balance sheet has never been better. We are about to post our most profitable year in nearly two decades. I have a feeling that companies are not going to be so quick to hire even when things do turn around so that they can continue to squeeze profits out of as few employees as possible. I think the "go-go" years of excess in the high tech world are gone forever. High tech companies are now going to start focusing more on their business and less on their glitzy "dot.com" era images. That should be a good thing in the long term though I realize there is a lot of pain in the short-term for those employees who had the misfortune to get on the wrong side of the downsizing. I hope you find something soon wherever you end up going.

[Fee]

When the blue collar worker was crying about being replaced by low cost foreign factories, the white collar high tech types basicly told them that is what happens to you if you don't have a college degree. High tech was the future and those who did not get the right education deserves to be replaced by lower cost foreign workers. THAT IS THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMY DUMB BLUE COLLAR MAN. Now the foreign workers learn how to do high tech work. Now the white collar high tech American worker is getting it in the kisser. WHAT DOES THE WHITE COLLAR HIGH TECH WORKER THINK ABOUT TH GLOBAL ECONOMY NOW ON THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE.

[CatoRenasci]

Actually, San Francisco was a cool place up through the '60s, although the climate was hostile to business from the mid-50's.

I'm a 5th generation Northern Californian with roots in San Francisco to the Gold Rush, but I no longer live in California. I couldn't stand what's happend to it from the '70s on, so now I'm on the East Coast. Perhaps if all the bozos leave, I will move back to the country North of San Francisco, get the old ranch back and run some sheep, plant some grapes and put in that hot tub I couldn't persuade the folks to.....