How are things in your area?

Around here we are getting hit really hard at the moment. I have been looking for a job for 3 months now and can't even get one pumping gas or flipping burgers. To make it better my fiance just lost her job because her company was just not getting enough business. The only place that has even bothered to look at my resume is on the other side of the mountain, I need to call them again this week. We have more people unemployed and looking for jobs than there are jobs.

You go to the grocery store and quite a few things cost 2-3 times what they did even last year. Gas is sitting at $4 a gallon for regular, diesel is almost $4.50. Restraunts have been raising their prices correspondingly as well. The local food banks have run out of food.

To help out with things i have started hunting more, we will be fishing as much as possible starting here soon. We have also been busy expanding our garden and looking into preservation methods. We got chickens and are building a chicken house. I have even started baking my own bread and learning how to do it over a fire if need be. Yesterday we took a 3 mile walk just to get use to walking the distance from our house to the store, it will be a bit further to get to the farmers market but better prices normally.

Quite a few people are getting hostile about things around here. I go visit my grandfather and all i hear from the older residents at his place is how things feel the way they did during the depression. I have had multiple old timers give me unsolicitated tips on how to poach wild game. People are just getting scared around here that soon people in the valley will not be able to afford food or other things they need.

So how are things going in your area? Any better? Any worse? What are you doing to help out with the lean times?

Houston is doing well by all accounts. Lots of construction and I'm seeing help wanted signs (mostly for CNC operators and machinists) when I drive through the industrial parts of town. There's work in the oil fields in the middle part of the country if you don't mind living in a trailer in a pretty bleak part of the world. There are parts of the country that are doing ok, but you need to be mobile and understand that you may not be putting down roots when you move there, you might just be working for a paycheck for a few years until things change.

I just got a raise....

Things are going well in my area, but the north east doesn't seem to ride the tides as closely as other areas.

I just moved back to Portland, Oregon from Austin, Texas...

In Austin they have an economic bubble of sorts, it seems that area was not near as affected by the poor economy. I was selling motorcycles down there and the amount of people still buying frivolous toys blew my mind.

Back in Portland times are definitely harder than down there. I still had no problem finding a good job, but I guess if you can sell its never really too hard to get a job anywhere. That being said I am experiencing many of the same problems as everybody else...gas near $4 with a 12mpg daily driver takes its toll.

I have my GF taking the express bus to her job and back, and I drop her off on my way to work and pick her up on the way back. Food banks are another huge resource, if things are getting tight we head down there and we are good until our next pay day. As a commission based salesperson when things get really tight I work extra hard!

I am not going out and partying at all, thats waaayyyy too expensive. I have also been clipping lots of coupons and keeping an eye out for deals!

I'm not hearing ppl complain much and this is a traditionally lower income area. Crime however has risen... unemployment, underemployment? drugs play a huge part in crimes here... I dunno, y'all do the math. YMMV

Seems better here in Michigan. With the auto companies starting to make money, the jobless rate is dropping.

I'm doing gardening/preserving more out of interest than any economic reasons.

My area seems to be doing decently.

Things are doing well here in Pittsburgh. We were just listed near the top of a list of job creation.

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2012/04/23/texas-and-pittsburgh-set.html?ana=twt

Housing prices are up a good bit on homes that are ready to sell. Short sales and forclosures with damage are never selling.

Work is good, couple more algae fuel companies are starting up around the block. Car sales are up.

Higher then normal non violent crime though, and lots of property defacement on the richer side of things. Car's being keyed, things like that.

alfadriver wrote: Seems better here in Michigan. With the auto companies starting to make money, the jobless rate is dropping. I'm doing gardening/preserving more out of interest than any economic reasons.

Yep. Michigan ran ahead of everybody as fast as they could into a recession while everybody was still doing fine. lol

Now with the auto industry pop the recovery here has been happening while the rest of the country seems to be lagging, plus we have a reduced labor pool due to people flat leaving the State, and concerted efforts to reappropriate some of our resources towards new/developing industries.

Still lots of depression on the East side of the state in Detroit/Flint/Saginaw/etc. though, but where I'm at over in Grand Rapids things have been on solid ground and improving for awhile. Lots of medical/research/tech stuff and auto suppliers are picking up. We're hearing similar positive tones overall from clients where I work throughout Mid-Michigan / Lansing region.

Glad to hear that some other areas are picking up. A couple things are keeping me here like a house that I owe no money on and I am finishing school (should be done in the fall). Honestly the area has grown on me and I can't imagine going back to a big city to live. Hopefully with some luck i will pick up a good job and not have to move.

I Went over to the Dark Side about six months ago. I'm glad I did. A slow week at my new job pays more than a good week at the old one. Its been kind of slow the past month, I hope it picks up again soon.

When I came to Erie I was in the dumps about the job situation. I had just completed (finally) my 4 year degree in 7 years, the awesome job I was working wasn't paying anything and would soon be dried up, and none of the connections I had made in my home town seemed to work out for me.

When I came to Erie I had debt and a girlfriend.

I took to the street walking into every auto shop and delivery store I could find. I knew how those industries operated and the appreciation of someone who does thing the old fashioned way. Look the owner/manager in the eye and tell then you need a job and you'll start tomorrow.

Now I'm working with county government, paying down my debt quickly (not quick enough) and looking to take these last two years of experience somewhere new, warm, and sunny.

I think I just picked up a steady 16 hours of work at my one place of work... still waiting to see

jimbob_racing wrote: Things are doing well here in Pittsburgh.

Agreed, not exactly sipping champaign but haven't lost my house either.

KS seems alright overall but the aviation industry isn't picking up as fast as hoped which puts some doubt into the situation here in Wichita.

I don't feel like I'll ever own a house. Too nervous. Most around me don't seem so worried but it gives me The Fear so I keep renting.

jimbob_racing wrote: Things are doing well here in Pittsburgh. We were just listed near the top of a list of job creation. http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2012/04/23/texas-and-pittsburgh-set.html?ana=twt

Atlanta is #93 on that list. I really haven't been seriously looking (SWMBO's son just finished cancer treatment) until the last three wks. or so. Hearing "overqualified" a lot. Still have about $6K of my severance left, not panicking yet.

I am not stealing toilet paper from the local gas station.

Pete240Z wrote: I am not stealing toilet paper from the local gas station.

they have TP??

I'm sitting in a suit in the school computer lab, just having had an interview. Lousy company and it would be a lousy job, but I think I'll be asked back for the second one. While in the interview I got a voicemail from another company asking to set up an interview. So for right now things are looking okay. Hopefully by May 11 I have a job.

fasted58 wrote:

Pete240Z wrote: I am not stealing toilet paper from the local gas station.

they have TP??

No, they have the worlds thinnest sand paper.

Pete240Z wrote: I am not stealing toilet paper from the local gas station.

This afternoon. Tomorrow?

mtn wrote:

fasted58 wrote:

Pete240Z wrote: I am not stealing toilet paper from the local gas station.

they have TP??

No, they have the worlds thinnest sand paper.

2 ply sandpaper.. there is a reason I keep my own in the car

We (as my wife, myself and the cat) are doing OK out here but it's still foreclosure country and official unemployment is still hovering around the 13% mark.

Throw the high gas prices in (not as bad as CA, but not much cheaper), the fact that you have to drive long distances and a general lack of jobs and the food banks are very popular out here, too.

Food is getting pretty expensive at the supermarket, but we offset it by doing a weekly run to Costco. Normally I'd be growing tomatoes etc but we're hoping to move this spring/summer so it didn't make much sense.