Does Idaho have a good job market? (best town, 2014)

[Shosho29]

My husband and I are looking to relocate from California. We have some money saved up to get an apartment and pay our rent for the first few months in advanced. Here in Cali we are at the 18% unemployment rate and their are just not enough jobs opening up. How is Idahos economy doing? What is the best town in Idaho to relocate and find jobs?

[Sage of Sagle]

The job market is tough here too, but seems to be getting better slowly. Unemployment rates in the North around 10-13%, FYI.

[ejay]

Originally Posted by Shosho29

My husband and I are looking to relocate from California. We have some money saved up to get an apartment and pay our rent for the first few months in advanced. Here in Cali we are at the 18% unemployment rate and their are just not enough jobs opening up. How is Idahos economy doing? What is the best town in Idaho to relocate and find jobs?

Take it from me HAVE A JOB BEFORE YOU MOVE! Do not move without one secured! And even then be worried! You are entering a right to work state. You can be fired for any reason at all. And you can do nothing about it. You can be hired and fired the same day. Or next week or month. When ever they want too, your gone. It's why a lot of us had small businesses of our own. I am leaving cause I can't find work. And have had enough of living on the meager wages people are willing to pay you here. It's not cheap living in this state when you end up unemployed and can't find a job. It's even harder to move when your stuck. Idaho is not for everyone. You can't eat the scenery. So be careful. Paradise is full of problems...

[elkotronics]

It's a tough job market here in north Idaho. Beautiful country to live in and I thank God I have a job here, but as I look around for another, hopefully better job, I am finding the job search pretty tough.

[CMartel2]

Originally Posted by ejay

Take it from me HAVE A JOB BEFORE YOU MOVE! Do not move without one secured! And even then be worried! You are entering a right to work state. You can be fired for any reason at all. And you can do nothing about it. You can be hired and fired the same day. Or next week or month. When ever they want too, your gone. It's why a lot of us had small businesses of our own. I am leaving cause I can't find work.

I'm not sure why this is so dire to a person seeking a job. If a business is going to invest the time and money to train you, it's typically with the understanding that they want you to become a productive member of that business. It would be a massive waste of capital to train people to have them only work for a month or two.

If you have no interest in being productive and are a slacker at heart, well, I guess then that could be a problem, and I could very easily see why a business would want to discard you and "go fish" again.

[banjomike]

The June jobs report had Idaho holding at 9.5% unemployment, but the most troubling sign is the very low demand for additional employees. At this time of the year, Idaho's seasonal job demand is traditionally very high.

This can only mean that all the agricultural jobs, light construction jobs (such as home building), heavy construction jobs (roads, large buildings and big projects), and tourist jobs are all falling off drastically. Idaho employment has has always been fat in the summer, lean in the winter. If demand is low now, it's only going to get worse in the next 6 months or more.

I have to disagree with Cmartel's last comment about being productive or a slacker. Idaho's Right to Work law allows both to be fired at will, and a lot of very productive people have lost their jobs due to preemptive cutbacks as businesses suddenly slow down. Losing a job can happen any time, anywhere right now. This is an especially serious problem for the folks who are senior employees or are middle aged, as young folks who are just entering the job market are willing to accept less.

In the end, it is an even more serious problem for a panicky employer. A labor force with high experience is simply more productive, produces higher quality work, and is faster to respond when conditions suddenly improve.

It is always better to cut wages and keep the labor force as intact as possible than it is to fire a lot of experienced workers and replace with inexperience. This creates a situation where the labor force produces less, with less quality of work, and is far less capable of meeting the demand for the goods or services if a demand suddenly arises. The end results from this are crappy work, overworked employees, and constant turnover. All make a company sink steadily.

I have 15 years experience as a small business owner, and have worked for companies large and small. I have seen all the stuff I just mentioned.

The notion of many workers being slackers is totally false these days, and has been for at least the past 10 years. The fat was trimmed out of the labor force many years ago. The only slackers that remain are in the management upstairs, and they're getting cut out increasingly now.