Recent area job losses (approximate)
AT&T Call Center, Charleston: 275
Applied Card Systems, Huntington: 660
Walker Systems, Williamstown: 300
Mayflower Vehicle Systems, South Charleston: 375
Dow Chemical, South Charleston: 165
Source is today's Charleston Gazette.
All of the loses have occurred in the past six months. Charleston's mayor, Danny Jones said he was concerned that mounting job losses could push Charleston’s population below 50,000 residents. If that happens, the city would not be eligible for some federal grants.
I am feeling physically ill right now, reading this in the morning paper.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
Once again, blue collar low/no skill jobs are on the chopping block. They have been for a good long time now and the only thing special about is I'll wager that WV has a lot under educated folks out there.
Hell, the biggest employee is going to the be State Gov. if this doesn't stop... which is rediculous when the state is losing more and more of its young people to other states, where they look for good paying jobs, but wind up at WalMart, Target, et al, because THERE ARE NO GOOD JOBS ANYMORE.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
And Nit and I can't even move out of state, because State jobs don't transfer. We move, I lose my $9/hour, 2hours/week overtime pay, full benefits and insurance.
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
It's damned if you do, damned if you don't here in WV anymore. Even if you have a degree in business management and one in computer programing and repair like a friend of mine, you still can't find anything other than night auditor in a hotel chain.
I'm making myself physically sick again.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
LadyTevar wrote:And Nit and I can't even move out of state, because State jobs don't transfer. We move, I lose my $9/hour, 2hours/week overtime pay, full benefits and insurance.
That's rather unfortunate, to say the least. But if the situation gets bad enough, you might want to consider quietly making job inquiries far from home. If you can secure an interview, it's not a problem to quietly take a day off for some "undisclosed family matter" and drive across the state for it.
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
Hmm, $425 US is roughly $550 CDN ... that would be enough to get you a tiny apartment with roommates in a bad neighbourhood which is a bit of a long walk from downtown Toronto ... well OK, it would be 100 miles away from downtown Toronto, but technically speaking, it is possible to make that walk, given enough time.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
The low cost of housing is probably directly related to the lack of high paying jobs in WV.
Here in southern Indiana, the employment base used to be mainly heavy manufacturing, now its shifting to service/healthcare with a subsequent decline in the wage base. Around here in the city, $425 would get you a decent 1 bedroom or slightly rundown 2 bedroom apartment, but it wouldn't include utilities.
In the smaller towns 20 miles outside of Evansville, $425 would get you a nice 2 bedroom and your utilities would run about $75 extra.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
If construction work is your thing, I'd reccomend moving here to British Columbia. We are currently experiencing a housing boom with a distinct lack of workers, skilled and unskilled labourers included. This boom should last at least until 2010, the year we host the 2010 Olympics.
Labourers start I think at somewhere around $18 /hr, housing is more expensive, but we've got the wages to cover it. A friend of mine in the biz, says the shortage of workers is so bad that they have to hire people who have been run out of other towns.
Its a nice place to live, here's a pic of Squamish, which is experiencing one of the largests booms.
P.S. It doesn't rain as much as this Board's Ontario residents might have you believe.
I would recommend moving to Arizona or Nevada, and taking a community college course or two in real estate, and taking the bar exam. The housing market out west is very healthy, and you can make a good amount of money as a real estate agent.
GALE Force Biological Agent/
BOTM/Great Dolphin Conspiracy/ Entomology and Evolutionary Biology Subdirector:SD.net Dept. of Biological Sciences
There is Grandeur in the View of Life; it fills me with a Deep Wonder, and Intense Cynicism.
Alyrium Denryle wrote:I would recommend moving to Arizona or Nevada, and taking a community college course or two in real estate, and taking the bar exam. The housing market out west is very healthy, and you can make a good amount of money as a real estate agent.
Are you paying our way out there and giving a place to crash until we find jobs?
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
Alyrium Denryle wrote:I would recommend moving to Arizona or Nevada, and taking a community college course or two in real estate, and taking the bar exam. The housing market out west is very healthy, and you can make a good amount of money as a real estate agent.
You seem to be assuming she has a healthy "rainy day" fund which she can live off of while she's spending months or years acquiring these skills.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
LadyTevar wrote:
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
HOLY SHIT that is cheap! Before we bought our house Melissa and I had a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Providence (looooong walk to downtown) and we paid $800 and that only included heat/hot water.
Also Tevar, up here a (Unionized, cuz they run everything here) city clerk's job would pay almost twice the $9/hour you get in WV, but it really doesn't matter because you pay twice as much to live here.
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.” -Tom Clancy
LadyTevar wrote:
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
HOLY SHIT that is cheap! Before we bought our house Melissa and I had a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Providence (looooong walk to downtown) and we paid $800 and that only included heat/hot water.
Also Tevar, up here a (Unionized, cuz they run everything here) city clerk's job would pay almost twice the $9/hour you get in WV, but it really doesn't matter because you pay twice as much to live here.
I can't find the article in the newspaper now, since I'm not a member, but according to it WVians pay something like 20% of their paycheck in various state and local taxes.
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
LadyTevar wrote:
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
HOLY SHIT that is cheap! Before we bought our house Melissa and I had a one bedroom apartment on the outskirts of Providence (looooong walk to downtown) and we paid $800 and that only included heat/hot water.
Also Tevar, up here a (Unionized, cuz they run everything here) city clerk's job would pay almost twice the $9/hour you get in WV, but it really doesn't matter because you pay twice as much to live here.
I can't find the article in the newspaper now, since I'm not a member, but according to it WVians pay something like 20% of their paycheck in various state and local taxes.
Hell, the biggest employee is going to the be State Gov. if this doesn't stop... which is rediculous when the state is losing more and more of its young people to other states, where they look for good paying jobs, but wind up at WalMart, Target, et al, because THERE ARE NO GOOD JOBS ANYMORE.
Michigan was in the same place during the 1980s; it's what happens when you hit bust on the end of the blue collar experience. With out a firm educational basis and educated population it's hard to replace those jobs. What the state just needs to do is move on and move forward, not wail and bitch about the present.
It does suck and if the people in charge are smart they'll take they'll push for educational money for those that stay and work in state as welll as push for tax breaks for business in state and for development projects. The biggest thing is giving people the tools to compete and business a reason to move back. It might hit the state coffers hard in the mean time but it's far better than a slow economic strangulation. I know that seems like a smug Republican answer but it's done well here it what used to be the Rust Belt.
Whether any in the South will be smart enough to pick up on it we'll see. I rather think not and we'll go back to an improvished South.
LadyTevar wrote:
I can't find the article in the newspaper now, since I'm not a member, but according to it WVians pay something like 20% of their paycheck in various state and local taxes.
WV 10.6 percent local and state. 26.% if you include federal taxes. That is close to average and even below average after you count federal taxes.
Ok.. we're top ten in that. But let's try comparing by Collections Per Capita: http://www.taxfoundation.org/staterankings.html
WV is 15th per Capita. But we're 3rd place if you go by Per $1000 Income!
We get taxed $83 for each $1000 in income. That means that I, making $19k a year, get taxed $1600. The only states with a higher tax per thousand is Vermont and Hawaii!
Nitram, slightly high on cough syrup: Do you know you're beautiful?
Me: Nope, that's why I have you around to tell me.
Nitram: You -are- beautiful. Anyone tries to tell you otherwise kill them.
"A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP" -- Leonard Nimoy, last Tweet
As a little aside, I'm going to be paying around the $600 USD/month for what amounts to a bedsit in student accomodation at Napier University. That doesnt include anything by a bedroom with sink and access to a couple of communal rooms shared with 3 to 4 other people. Lighting and heating not included...and no phone line...and basically nothing that's normally included in Halls...
On top of that it's about 5 miles from my campus.
"Prodesse Non Nocere." "It's all about popularity really, if your invisible friend that tells you to invade places is called Napoleon, you're a loony, if he's called Jesus then you're the president." "I'd drive more people insane, but I'd have to double back and pick them up first..." "All it takes for bullshit to thrive is for rational men to do nothing." - Kevin Farrell, B.A. Journalism. BOTM - EBC - Horseman - G&C - Vampire
Keevan_Colton wrote:As a little aside, I'm going to be paying around the $600 USD/month for what amounts to a bedsit in student accomodation at Napier University. That doesnt include anything by a bedroom with sink and access to a couple of communal rooms shared with 3 to 4 other people. Lighting and heating not included...and no phone line...and basically nothing that's normally included in Halls...
On top of that it's about 5 miles from my campus.
wow. communism is pretty fucking expensive.
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.” -Tom Clancy
Col. Crackpot wrote:wow. communism is pretty fucking expensive.
Depends how greedy the bastards running it are. For about 75 to 100 less a month, Strathclyde had halls with a T1 net connection, phone, utilities included, en-suite bathrooms and included TV and license.
"Prodesse Non Nocere." "It's all about popularity really, if your invisible friend that tells you to invade places is called Napoleon, you're a loony, if he's called Jesus then you're the president." "I'd drive more people insane, but I'd have to double back and pick them up first..." "All it takes for bullshit to thrive is for rational men to do nothing." - Kevin Farrell, B.A. Journalism. BOTM - EBC - Horseman - G&C - Vampire
LadyTevar wrote:And Nit and I can't even move out of state, because State jobs don't transfer. We move, I lose my $9/hour, 2hours/week overtime pay, full benefits and insurance.
Not to mention, where else would you find a $425/month, all utilities included 2bedroom walkup, just a short walk from downtown?
It's damned if you do, damned if you don't here in WV anymore. Even if you have a degree in business management and one in computer programing and repair like a friend of mine, you still can't find anything other than night auditor in a hotel chain.
I'm making myself physically sick again.
Well don't come to Orange County. It's the same deal here, but the apartment you describe would easily rate $1500+ per month.
"Gunslinger indeed. Quick draw, Bob. Quick draw." --Count Chocula
"Unquestionably, Dr. Who is MUCH lighter in tone than WH40K. But then, I could argue the entirety of WWII was much lighter in tone than WH40K." --Broomstick
"This is ridiculous. I look like the Games Workshop version of a Jedi Knight." --Harry Dresden, Changes
"Like...are we canonical?" --Aaron Dembski-Bowden to Dan Abnett
Alyrium Denryle wrote:I would recommend moving to Arizona or Nevada, and taking a community college course or two in real estate, and taking the bar exam. The housing market out west is very healthy, and you can make a good amount of money as a real estate agent.
You seem to be assuming she has a healthy "rainy day" fund which she can live off of while she's spending months or years acquiring these skills.
Actually, you can become a liscenced real estate agent in IIRC less than a standard semester
I do believe my mother did it in less than 3 months
You may even be able to do something similar in WV. Even if people arent moving into the state, people still need to move AROUND the state, and such people require real estate agents.
commission is IIRC 4% if you list the house on the market, 3% if you sell it. It would be possible with a few home sales to restore Nitrams credit, pay off any debts, and then start saving up to move to a more productive state. One could even train for this WHILE working regular day job. Depending on the program of study(I know MCC here was flexible enough for that)
GALE Force Biological Agent/
BOTM/Great Dolphin Conspiracy/ Entomology and Evolutionary Biology Subdirector:SD.net Dept. of Biological Sciences
There is Grandeur in the View of Life; it fills me with a Deep Wonder, and Intense Cynicism.
Alyrium Denryle wrote:I would recommend moving to Arizona or Nevada, and taking a community college course or two in real estate, and taking the bar exam. The housing market out west is very healthy, and you can make a good amount of money as a real estate agent.
Are you paying our way out there and giving a place to crash until we find jobs?
I would expect similar courses of study would exist in Wv.
GALE Force Biological Agent/
BOTM/Great Dolphin Conspiracy/ Entomology and Evolutionary Biology Subdirector:SD.net Dept. of Biological Sciences
There is Grandeur in the View of Life; it fills me with a Deep Wonder, and Intense Cynicism.
Alyrium Denryle wrote:I would recommend moving to Arizona or Nevada, and taking a community college course or two in real estate, and taking the bar exam. The housing market out west is very healthy, and you can make a good amount of money as a real estate agent.
I think getting into real estate in Nevada is a bad idea, especially around Las Vegas. The Las Vegas market is over heated and due for a nasty adjustment.
I can't recommend California either, your job might pay you 15-20 dollars an hour out here, but the cost of living far outpaces the increase in pay you'd get.
be flexible and move to china. they´re having a boom.
And you get your choice between being a US Foreign Service officer, dirt-poor factoy worker or starving peasant. What a nice little array of choices, there.
*Very* inexpensive, though. Lots of cheap stuff. Most of it stolen. Just don't drink the water.
Seriously though, sorry to hear about your troubles. I would imagine Nitram's not being a citizen isn't helping his job prospectives any.
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
Alyrium Denryle wrote:Actually, you can become a liscenced real estate agent in IIRC less than a standard semester
I do believe my mother did it in less than 3 months
You may even be able to do something similar in WV. Even if people arent moving into the state, people still need to move AROUND the state, and such people require real estate agents.
No they don't. This is an economically depressed, massively unemployed area we're talking about. People in such conditions are often loathe to cough up 3-4% of the cost of their home to an agent, and there's a lot more self-selling going on. Not to mention the fact that they DON'T move around much, except due to bank foreclosures.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
