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Unemployment Hits New High In Silicon Valley
Though there may be some degree of cushion for IT workers in the US generally, Slatterz writes "The steadily climbing unemployment rate in Silicon Valley has reached a shocking four-year high
of 6.6 per cent. Recent statistics indicate that the percentage of unemployed workers in the sunny state of California has increased to 7.7 in August — up from 7.4 per cent in July. Jeffrey Lindsay of Bernstein Research explained that a number of Internet firms were chronically overstaffed."
good call. Good curry, lots of women (most of them put out for Americans, no game required ), and plenty of opportunity for high level jobs in their outsourcing industry. Plus, with the lax laws and easy access to grade-A Afghanistan opium, the place is wilder than Las Vegas. I spent 6 months there, partying like a rock star nightly.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Employers are being very picky - they demand an exact skills match. They demand you are already familiar with the exact software package you are using. They're no longer willing to retrain even for permanent roles, or even let you read the manual. It's getting specialized, and IMHO the specialization has got ridiculous. It's no longer enough to be a C++ Programmer for example, if they're hiring a C++ Programmer for Embedded Systems. They can afford to be that fussy. A lot of tech that was popular a few years ago has died out. Don't waste time applying for jobs unless your resume is a perfect match. Instead think about taking some time off to retrain. Java is still in demand for example. Or start your own company. Or switch to something else. IT is fun, I guess, but if you want to make money there are much more lucrative businesses.
Well the standard of living cost so much in CA. Why not employ someone who lives in say Texas for $65,000 a year. Rather then pay for someone who lives in CA for $85,000 just so they can afford their standard of living. Who knows maybe everyone can start flipping houses and sell a 1,000 sqft house for 1 million and change.... Oh wait that market crashed too.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
Instead of India, why not move to the Northeast U.S. or Maritime Canada? Lots of open jobs here. Companies will hire almost anybody.
(For now anyway; who knows how the recession will affect the future.)
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
There's no shortage of IT workers. There's a shortage of IT workers able/willing to work for the salaries/benefits companies are offering.
I wonder how many workers in the Valley are unemployed because of the incompetence of said recruiters? I think it's quite possible that there's jobs out there that are a match with an unemployed worker, but the recruiters (who you have to deal with if you want a job) are too stupid/ignorant/incompetent/lazy to do their jobs properly.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
This article doesn't say that SV IT workers are experiencing high unemployment. It says that the region has high unemployment.
Hopefully, the mortgage hustlers are the ones out of jobs, instead of the people who actually do productive work.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Now at 10.7 pct for August. Counts part-timers looking for full-time work, the discouraged etc. at 10.7 for the US.
I couldn't find numbers for silly valley, but my gut feeling is that it is above the national average there.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
There is a very big reason why the current financial crisis is worse than anything anyone remembers. The last 50 years of living beyond our means is finally catching up to us. There simply isn't any more available credit, we've spent it all.
Any attempt at a financial rescue that does nothing to reduce debt, is no rescue at all. The only long term way out of this mess is to reduce debt. First we have to cut our spending till it's less than our income so we have something left to pay down our debt. But even this has a huge cost. Last year 4.5 trillion dollars of the US's 14 trillion dollar GDP was funded by increasing private debt. Stop that growth of debt and overnight 30% of the economy disappears.
The band has stopped playing, the music has stopped, but there's nowhere to sit down because we sold all the chairs when we thought we didn't need them.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Inaccurate.
According to this site the average unemployment rate world-wide is 13.5%. The site cites the CIA World Factbook as its source.
Perhaps the 30% you were referring to is the statistic of combined unemployment and underemployment rate of many non-industrialized nations (found here) ?
In that case: apples and oranges, friend.
One man's constant is another man's variable.
I know quite a few people that have moved back from the US and actually run pretty impressive IT outfits.
They all got their education states side and they moved back as soon as their finances allowed them to.
They live a pretty good life in India and I don't think there is any amount of money that would entice them to go back.
MP3 Search Engine
As a long-time Silly-valley resident, I've seen this phenomenon before. Senior management actually get bonuses directly proportional to the amount "saved" by downsizing. Right now, looking at the traffic patterns around here, we see a total drop in traffic on the roads, but an increase in both high-end managermobiles and in bluecollarmobiles (cheap SUVs). It's not a good time to live here, unless you happen to be in the pointy end of the pyramid. Jaded? Yeah, so what?
.nosig
You said.
"Everything will shake out as it ALWAYS has - even right after the Great Depression, which gets more and more overrated as the years go by"
I would argue the opposite. We seem to minimize the great depression.
1. In all the charts for stock market performance, I NEVER see one that goes back to 1929. Hmmm
2. If you are talking about corrections, you cannot say "everything will shake out... even right after the great depression".
First, the correction was the 1929 stock market crash. Second, everything did not shake out, there were people who lived with hunger and poverty for 10+ years.
Third, many people lost everything. My grandfather lost about $250,000 when the financial institutions collapsed. He never recovered a cent.
Forth, it may have taken another decade to overcome if it hadn't been for the horrible war.
You KNOW the great depression was a CATASTROPHIC event. How can you tell? Look at the effect it had on the people who lived through it. They still waste NOTHING, and have a hard time throwing things out. Anything that has that effect on people 70 years later is serious.