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Youth Magnet' Cities (like Portland, Austin) Hit Midlife Crisis (no jobs, but they are cool)
Wall Street Journal ^ | May 16, 2009 | Conor Dougherty

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: college; jobs; portland; portlandoregon
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To: trumandogz

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.


21 posted on 05/17/2009 6:08:03 PM PDT by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
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To: jjw

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?


22 posted on 05/17/2009 6:22:02 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: reaganaut1
...well, he could always put a few years in the service. I know it's foolish of me to suggest it, but an occasional serendipitous post is occasionally forgivable.
23 posted on 05/17/2009 6:53:38 PM PDT by MSF BU (++)
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To: trumandogz

What does a good barman in NYC bring in monthly?


24 posted on 05/17/2009 6:55:14 PM PDT by MSF BU (++)
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To: trumandogz

How many of the cars have the “Keep Austin Weird” bumper stickers?


25 posted on 05/17/2009 6:55:27 PM PDT by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Humanity's Edge" - on amazon.com)
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To: MSF BU

Depends on how many hands he has and how troubled he is by conscience.


26 posted on 05/17/2009 6:58:02 PM PDT by narses (http://www.theobamadisaster.com/)
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To: reaganaut1

What do you call a person with a degree in journalism?

Waiter.


27 posted on 05/17/2009 6:59:11 PM PDT by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
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To: reaganaut1
Hey pal....call the White House. I'm sure there's a great 'shovel ready' job with your name on it.

Nam Vet

28 posted on 05/17/2009 7:30:44 PM PDT by Nam Vet ("Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it." .... Henry David Thoreau)
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To: SteveAustin

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.


29 posted on 05/17/2009 7:34:12 PM PDT by Clemenza (Remember our Korean War Veterans)
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To: reaganaut1
Mr. Singer's plan was to get an editing or writing gig at an alternative weekly newspaper, the job he was doing in California

Not exactly "Grapes of Wrath" material.

30 posted on 05/17/2009 7:45:09 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: SteveAustin
Skilled trades are still looking pretty good.
31 posted on 05/17/2009 7:46:49 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: reaganaut1

Yeah then reality sets in. What a bitch. Especially when they have to pay their “fair share” in taxes.


32 posted on 05/17/2009 7:53:29 PM PDT by Texas resident (Texan by birth and by choice.)
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To: dfwgator

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?


33 posted on 05/17/2009 7:56:02 PM PDT by Texas resident (Texan by birth and by choice.)
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To: Steely Tom

That is the sort of errant pedantry up with which I shall not put! (Quoting Winston Churchill, I think.)

Heh heh.

Ed


34 posted on 05/17/2009 8:09:07 PM PDT by Sir_Ed
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To: tbw2

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.


35 posted on 05/17/2009 8:13:21 PM PDT by comps4spice
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To: tbw2
How many of the cars have the “Keep Austin Weird” bumper stickers?

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.

36 posted on 05/17/2009 10:52:45 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: dfwgator

“What do you call a person with a degree in journalism?”

My troops called me “Sir”.


37 posted on 05/17/2009 10:58:07 PM PDT by Francis McClobber
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To: MSF BU

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.


38 posted on 05/17/2009 10:58:10 PM PDT by trumandogz (The Democrats are driving us to Socialism at 100 MPH -The GOP is driving us to Socialism at 97.5 MPH)
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To: trumandogz

*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.


39 posted on 05/17/2009 11:42:24 PM PDT by j-damn
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To: SteveAustin
"Or they are on there way there."

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.

40 posted on 05/18/2009 3:54:32 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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