Thread Drift

[Pax]

Blueberry - we're in the same place, thinking about selling our home. Primarily because my SO's job is ending in November, she can make twice what I do so is looking at jobs around the country. Fortunately except for a tiny mortgage we're debt free, so if we end up staying here we can keep the house on my salary alone. It just puts her in a bad situation job/retirement wise.

[Crankin]

Condos are actually selling well here. Because, maybe, you can still buy one cheaper than a house. When the average price is 300K, things are different... of course you can get a condo much more expensive than 300K, but there aren't tons of empty ones sitting around.
I am surprised by all of the negativity. The unemployment rate here is better than the national average, but still at 6-7%. But, truthfully, I don't know anyone , really know, who has lost a job. I got a job within 2 weeks of graduating in my new career. My son got a new job in 2010, just a year ago. He's had raises and other good things happen. My DH's company (software) is doing the best it has ever done. They are giving everyone double their stakeholder shares (it's a privately held company). This isn't bragging, but, I think this economy thing is very field specific and also regional. All I can say, is that I am glad I left AZ. The foreclosure signs on every block were just depressing. But, I saw that bubble waiting to burst many years ago. There's more to life than endless summer.

[Blueberry]

Crankin-

Some industries have been hit harder than others. I've been either unemployed or significantly underemployed (or working in a nightmare of a job where I might or might not actually see my paycheck) since June of 2008. I'm well qualified and I've been working my butt off in the jobs I've had/been able to get and trying to find others.

[Crankin]

I understand this.
There are a lot of other people I graduated with, who are not employed. I decided to go on every interview I got and frankly, I am doing a type of therapy that is not what i want to do when I am done with my "residency," as I fondly call it. Given the fact that there aren't tons of options until one gets licensed, I decided the culture of the place I worked was the most important. And, I made a good choice. I love the flexibility of my job, and while I said I would "never" go into people's homes, I like it. I don't want to work with kids forever, but I do get work with the parents quite a bit; and it is filling in experience that I didn't get in my internships, where I was so focused on working with adults, because my previous career (teaching) was mostly with adolescents. I actually liked the work I did in my internship last year, better. But, my days go quickly and I can take 2 years of this.
I guess what I am saying is that compared to others I graduated with, I was not so picky in limiting myself to certain things. I want to get the licensing stuff done as soon as I can. It's not perfect. And the pay? Well, sometimes I hardly believe how much I made my last year of teaching. I'll never see that again, unless I open my own practice, and frankly, I'm not willing to do that.
The regional/industry specific thing is very true. Since I live in a place that focuses on health care, technology, and education, things are not so bad.

[Fredwina]

Busily practicing saying Rensselaer (ren-SEE-lear)
I now what everyone is saying - I've probably lost all my furniture with this move, but I'm working and liking Upstate so far, even though I 'm fairly broke for the next week or so (Had to get an advance just to get a place)
Work is doing good - we're actually in a old Grant's department store - i'm two miles away from work
God - this past month has been too crazy!

[KnottedYet]

CrazyCanuck - take a look at the Google logo for French google today: it's a memorial to Freddy Mercury.

Here's an animation of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX2BQM0D01M

[bmccasland]

CrazyCanuck - take a look at the Google logo for French google today: it's a memorial to Freddy Mercury.

Here's an animation of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX2BQM0D01M

Pooh, all I got was the regular Google page. But the youtube video was cool.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have a few friends who have lost their jobs, and many of my other friends are making less money now than they used to. Some who lost good jobs are now working at jobs for only a portion of their previous salary. Almost every business owner on main street in my town says they are struggling because people are spending less. Our silent food pantry, which had plenty of food on the shelves two years ago and even last year, now looks half empty at any given time for the past several months- donations and supplies are still coming in like before, but the number of clients is rising steadily, and it's now hard to keep enough food stocked to go around for everyone.
The effects of the recession are plain to see in my town.

[KnottedYet]

I blame Wal*Mart and Wall Street.
And the sheeple who handed them the power to f*ck us over.

"Oh, yes please beloved chain store, sell me that widget made in China for $2.93 rather than that one at the local independent hardware store made in Ohio for $3.50. I save and every one wins!" "Oh, yes please, give me that house loan for 1% down and adjustable interest! I can get that house immediately without being forced to have stable personal finances and everyone wins!" "I get what I want, and someone else will take care of it! Because everyone wins and Santa Claus is watching out for us!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKv6RcXa2UI

Of course, I had to learn from a European media that the recently touted Martin Luther King Jr. monument was made in China, and assembled in the US by Chinese workers brought to Washington DC to do the work. Truly, I find this deeply shameful. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-in-China.html

[Trek420]

And .... it has shall we say an editorial error in it. Not spelling or even grammar but kind of like the oddly worded imported t'shirt something is wrong. One word makes a big difference. Carved in granite, oopsie :

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/...153930799.html

The effects of the recession are plain to see in my town.

They are plain all around and likely here for a long time. Thanks BSG for what you and your food pantry do.

[Crankin]

I truly was not trying to sound unfeeling. This is an article that was in the paper a day or so after I made my above post.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-09-0...-massachusetts

In the past, Massachusetts has lagged years behind the national economy in recovery, so I guess this is our turn.