Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The state of things to come

I’d like to report to you on what will become an increasing sight here in Collin County, Texas, USA, one of the wealthier counties in Texas.
On Tuesday (Feb. 10), there was a relatively small job fair held at the Plano Centre, a small convention facility, sponsored by dice.com, a fairly new online job search site. In all, there were 11 companies represented, including the likes of Raytheon, Lennox, City of Dallas, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, Region 10 Education Center (TEA), e-rewards, a few consulting firms and others.
This space was reserved prior to recent layoffs at Texas Instruments and other North Texas companies so organizers obviously did not know the size of the crowd to expect.
The event started at 11 a.m., but at 10:45 a.m., there was already a very long line waiting for the doors to open (several hundreds of unemployed jobseekers). The room employed soon was filled to the gills with people waiting in line for more than two HOURS just to drop off a resume (accepting no applications, except on line but didn’t tell anyone) with one firm.
By 1 p.m., the procession to ENTER the Plano Centre wrapped around the building, not counting the crowd inside the lengthy hallway, trying to get into the room. Some estimates had more than 2,000 people looking for jobs at this event.
My wife was one of those involved and kept bumping into former Texas Instruments colleagues – all trying to do the same thing – find a new working life.
Such scenes will be repeated over and over and over as reality comes to Collin County – the weakening and worsening economy is striking at the heart of exurban America, as represented by cities like Plano, Frisco, Allen and McKinney. Since Texas admits the affects of the national recession are delayed before appearing in this state, we are only beginning to witness what the rest of the nation already knows.
Times are tough and about to get MUCH tougher before it gets better.
Fortunately, for this household, my diligent spouse has managed to obtain one of the rare nuggets that others tried so hard to mine – a job interview (with the city of Dallas - but not YET official; no one is returning phone calls and she is getting antsy about it). She was instantly the envy of others; merely wishing to have someone consider them for a new job, let alone hire them.
Such is life is the NEW America RIF (reduction in force … or … rising in fear).

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This idea that what is happening in places like California and Michigan is going to happen here is hogwash. It's NOT GOING TO COME HERE because our policies are pro business and the policies of Democratically-controlled places like Detroit are not.

Will we see an increase in unemployment? Of course! Companies are global and if they need to cut back because of a global and/or national slowdown, they will cut back and it will result in layoffs here at home. Texas Instruments is a great example.

But that's not nearly as bad as not having the companies here in the first place. We have a lot of them here in the DFW area for a reason.

But of the top 10 metropolitan areas for unemployment (a staggering 22.6% to 13%), California has EIGHT of them. Why? Because of California's policies. You would have to be an idiot to start a business in California today.

5.5% unemployment in Collin County in December is EXTREMELY LOW. I'm not trying to dismiss the harm unemployment causes the people who do get laid off. I'm not being insensitive. I just reject this idea promoted by some that Collin County is just like every other county in the nation and we're headed for 20% unemployment.

No, we are not, because of pro-business policies.

In the list of large metropolitan areas unemployment, Texas has 4 of the top 10 LOWEST UNEMPLOYMENT - Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas are in the top 10 list of the lowest unemployment.

Chuck B. said...

I find people who hide behind "anonymous" to be somewhat cowardly. I put my name out there - but this writer choose to hide. Wonder why...

Anonymous said...

It's easy to check. We only have to wait for some time, and we'll see who's right. But I hope this will be the anonymous guy...

Anonymous said...

What a surprise, you attack the person personally versus discuss the person's points.

Chuck B. said...

Hey, my blog; my reaction. Now DON'T Take this personally, but BLOW ME!
Have a nice day!

Anonymous said...

So your granddaughter is going to learn how to be a nice person...from you?

Chuck B. said...

Now you crossed the fucking line - your brought my granddaughter into the conversation, which is WAY out of bounds.
Listen up, bitch! You are a fucking coward to hide ... e-mail me and come out of your "closet" like the whore prick you are.
Do me a favor - keep your so-called opinions to yourself.
Besides, do you have nothing betetr to do than read my bog? What kind of low-life asshole are you?

Anonymous said...

This is right on the front page of your blog:
"Chuck Bloom
Retired journalist who enjoys life with his second wife and trying to help his granddaughter grow into a wonderful woman."

You personally insult people simply because they have a different opinion than you and you use crude language towards strangers.

Chuck B. said...

Goddman fucking right! I reserve the right to insult any asshole who intrudes on my blog territory.
Can't stand the language? Get out of the blog.

Anonymous said...

Some asshole intruded on an opinion piece published for the whole world to see? LOL.

Jodie said...

I also find it curious that anonymous is attacking Chuck with out naming him or herself. Not cool dude! Grow some and put your name and email out here where we know who you are.... just like letters to the editor.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Bloom
... who was directly affected by the aforementioned layoff by a Fortune 500 corporation headquartered in Dallas of 1800 employees plus part of the 1600 retirees were actually told to retire... Lots of high tech workers (engineers, IT, etc) out of jobs. Joined the job search at the end of January. Read my blog. http://jodiezoeller.blogspot.com
I give my perspective on being laid off by the company that we all know by the initials that are the reverse of IT.
PS. I'm still a stock holder.
;-) but not for long!!! Bye bye TXN I would prefer to own Apple. :-)

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Bloom, where did I attack your husband? Was it where your husband called me a coward? Was it where he said "blow me"? Was it where he called me a "whore prick"?

I think it's quite funny that you think I am attacking your husband when all I did was disagree with the premise of his blog.

I think if you and your husband want to blog on the Internet, you need to get thicker skin.

Why do you have Comments turned on if you don't want people to comment?