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Where's Waldo? (if Waldo's looking for a job)

Published: Mar 11, 2009

The busy Manpower (see the earlier post entitled "Good Times, Bad Times -- which is it?") has released more information, this time from its Employment Outlook Survey for 2009's second quarter. The poll measures the difference in the percentage of employers who expect to hire and those who expect to reduce staff in the ensuing three months. The overall picture in the U.S. of A. shows just a tiny flicker of light -- by Manpower's methods, with 15% that plan to hire versus 14% who, um, foresee casualties, the "net employment outlook" is 1%. (The rest anticipated no change; the survey included 31,800 companies, both public and private, in 201 American metro areas.) But there are wide differences when looking at particular areas of the country.

It's probably no surprise that four cities at the bottom of the list are in Florida, a state which has seen two of its top industries (construction and tourism) all but die of late. Fort Myers, Port St. Lucie, Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Naples earned, respectively, a -16%, -14%, -14% and -11%. Now for the cheerier stuff, in which the top slots are filled by some unlikely candidates. Two cities in Washington, Yakima (+21%) and Kennewick (+19%), are both reaping benefits from a large apple crop and other agrarian efforts; once home to the nation's highest percentage of Ph.D.'s per person (who knew?), the Kennewick area also hosts the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory research facility. Anchorage, Alaska (+18%), where the retail and healthcare segments are booming, is another desirable location for job seekers. So are Amarillo, Texas (+15%) -- the site of sizable medical and food processing firms, and the only nuclear refurbishment plant on the planet -- and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, maybe the only place in the country where finance firms (Wells Fargo, Citigroup, HSBC) aren't being raked over the coals.

Perhaps a move is in order…but do keep in mind that these results carry an expiration date of June 2009.

--Posted by Todd Obolsky, Vault News & Commentary

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