TSC's Job Market Survey: Northwest and Mountains

TheStreet.com asked readers around the country to offer their observations on the state of their local job markets. Here's what readers in the Northwest and Mountain states had to say.

The economy is definitely smokin' where I now live, in Seattle, but it's just as definitely broken where I recently lived, in Hawaii.

The Seattle wage picture is one of rising pay, but it's hard to call this inflationary because so much of the pay increase has to do with the big shift to high-paying new tech companies, and away from the very underpaid conditions prevalent here before these companies came along. I'd say the skyrocketing housing market here has much to do with wage pressure as well; practically every employer is affected by that in one way or another.

In Hawaii, meanwhile, a seven-year recession is still grinding along, and housing costs have come way down as the Japanese real estate money has fled home. Wages in the Islands are no longer rising as they were during the fat days eight years back.

-- David Camp
Seattle

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From the Pacific Northwest, things are still extremely hot. Granted, I'm in a very technology-oriented community, and I'm looking to hire skilled software developers and other programmers, but I know of many people who are not satisfied with even 10% raises. I'm not sure anyone around here even remembers downsizing save for the Boeing (BA Quote) crowd.

And personally? Well, I just jumped ship for a 30K/yr wage increase...

-- Frank Owen
Pacific Northwest

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Featured on the front page of the local Gannett paper last week was a story about high-school kids getting $7 an hour for summer jobs. Unemployment locally is less that 3.8%. Construction labor, skilled and unskilled, is impossible to find. Local landscape contractors are importing labor from Mexico. Legally sponsoring them and then housing them at their expense to work on lawn maintenance crews.

My wife's little 12-employee business is going to experience health plan cost increases of about 20%. Labor is tight and employee costs are increasing rapidly.

-- Tom Sibbald
Ft. Collins, Colo.

The job market out here is on fire. I work in high tech, engineers are constantly changing jobs for unbelievable pay increases. Local fast-food joints are offering $7/hr and still can't get people.

Construction is also unbelievable. I have a friend that works for a big plumbing contractor, they are turning down jobs because they don't have enough plumbers.

I know that Colorado is growing much faster than the rest of the country, but this has been going on for about six years, and only gets faster and faster.

-- Vince Kiel
Boulder, Colo.

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The employment picture in the Bay Area is rather grim if you are an employer looking for qualified and/or skilled workers. However, the job market is very good if you are looking to find work or even wishing to get a raise by threatening to possibly move on to a competitor. The high-tech industry is no doubt the engine driving our local economy.

I am a mortgage banker and the new home builders I work with are having difficulty finding skilled labor and as a result of taking longer to build homes. This adds to overall cost and reduces efficiency and profitability. The only way to address this problem is to pay your workers more than the other builders which in turn drives up the end cost to consumers. That's where I am starting to see some resistance. The consumer and the real estate market has already started to slow down. This can be evidenced by the economic data recently released stating a 15% decline in new home sales on the West Coast.

The mortgage industry is having to adapt quickly to take advantage of opportunity or face getting blown off the charts by more aggressive competition. The profit margins are shaved to a minimum and many of the industry giants are suffering huge losses just trying to maintain decent volume so they don't have to start laying people off.

-- Denise Herich
Napa, Calif.

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The best phrase I can think of for the California Silicon Valley job market right now is "feeding frenzy." Both in high-tech and blue-collar (especially construction and related industry) we are seeing a shortage of workers and increasing wages to try to attract them.

I'm a consultant in the system and network administration field. From my perspective, many companies are absolutely dying for qualified people. Many companies have had to resort to sue high priced contractors like myself in lieu of hiring permanent employees due to the lack of qualified candidates. I'm getting 10-20 calls per week begging for my time, but I'm booked solid for the next year. Virtually all of my associates are in the same position.

One hiring manager recently told me, "All the senior SAs [system administrators] out there are either employed or contracting. I can't find anyone. Our growth is being slowed by lack of talent, so if I can find senior people who are willing to move, I'll give them just about anything to get them onboard."

Most of the contractors in my business these days are charging $100+ per hour and turning down more work than they can take. I've seen people being offered 30% and 40% increases in salary to switch companies. Even promising start-ups are having difficulty recruiting candidates.

I'm not complaining ... this is great for my company. On the other hand, I, too, have difficulty recruiting new people. I could easily double our billable hours (and hence revenues) if I could find more people.

-- Eric D. Christensen
Silicon Valley, Calif.

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Everywhere you look new construction is going on: pastures turned into homes, mega-retail outlets, warehouse complexes, highway expansions, etc.; you name it, EVERY aspect of a sizzling economy is taking place in Sonoma County. Furthermore; every storefront and gas station has help-wanted signs. There is no minimum wage anymore, people quit one job and then look for the next. All enthusiastic, skilled help is happy and well-paid; the rest are overpaid, lethargic slugs.

-- William Setterfield
Sonoma County, Calif.