Las Vegas and Phoenix: Hottest big metro areas for jobs (bizjournals.com)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

October 10, 2005
Bizdemographics
Hottest big metros for jobs
G. Scott Thomas

http://www.bizjournals.com/edit_special/29.html

"People like to be in a place that's doing well, which is certainly the case in Las Vegas and Phoenix," says Howard Wall, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. "But is job growth causing people to move there? Or is population growth creating more jobs? I don't think the two can be separated."

Las Vegas and Phoenix are the hottest job markets in the nation, according to the latest rankings from bizjournals and American City Business Journals. Rapid growth in their population and job bases, coupled with low unemployment rates, have propelled Las Vegas to first place and Phoenix to No. 2 among America's 87 major labor markets:

* Las Vegas' workforce expanded by 7.7 percent during the past year, creating 62,700 jobs. No other major market grew faster than 5.6 percent.

* Phoenix picked up 62,800 jobs in the same 12-month period and cut its unemployment rate by more than half a percentage point.

[babylonsister]

1. My first thought? Good, no hurricanes in those places-yet.

I think this summer left me traumatized by just watching the horrors unfold.
RE: hottest, they're not kidding!

[Buddyblazon]

2. No offense to our DU Vegas inhabitants...

but in my opinion...if there's a hell on earth, it's Vegas.

And I stress that that's only my opinion.

[ender]

3. if you can avoid the sleazy bits...

vegas has great schools... and you can make a ton of money working for the various legitimate industries out there... its IT heaven, actually...

[stopbush]

7. Vegas has great school buildings...and so-so schools.

The turnover in the teaching staff is incredible because the system pays squat. Just-out-of-school types start in Vegas at $24k per year and leave in two years for a better-paying job. Try living on that when a 1-bdrm house will cost you around $125,000 in Vegas.

Clark County hires 1600-1800 new teachers each year to staff new schools and account for attrition. My kids were in the CCSS for two years at very nice schools in Summerlin, but the teaching was very suspect. Brand-new computers...and teachers thrown into a meat grinder and forced to teach to the test because of NCLB. The arts are thriving at Vegas schools, especially music, but they get ZERO funding from the CCSS. The schools pay the teacher's salaries. Everything else - music, instruments, supplies - is paid for by bake sales, magazine sales, soap sales and all the other crap the kids are forced to do if they want to play in a band or orchestra.

For all their faults, the schools here in CA run circles around Vegas.

As far as job growth, there's only ONE economy there, and that's the service industry wrapped around the casinos. Yes - there's always a new McDs going up, and they're hiring. But there's very little else going on in Vegas industry wise.

[m0nkeyneck]

4. not to mention the..

enormous amounts of energy required to sustain a large population in the middle of the desert..

[mshasta]

5. feel bad for..

the people in Vegas are probably sick and tired of customer service..

[Greyhound]

6. Don't know about Vegas, but Phoenix has lots of openings

and wanted signs are everywhere. Problem is they are all for low wage ($6 - $12 p/hour), McJobs with no benefits and no future. High tech and t-com jobs that paid $40K and up 3 years ago are now paying $25K, and the cost of living is climbing fast.

[Sandpiper]

8. You beat me to it

I lived in the Phoenix area for a while, and it has a Jack in the Box economy.

Lots of jobs to be had, but the majority of them are dead end.

[Skelington]

9. Las Vegas has been one of (pardon the pun)

THE hot spots for construction for the past 8 years. The incredible casinos are a wonderfull testament to how well greed pays,...... polish the handle well enough, and people will stand in line to flush themselves down. If everybody who went to Vegas dropped 5% of the money they were about to burn, into some sort of National Emergency Relief Fund, at least there would be SOMETHING to draw on in case of an emergency. This works in real life, My girlfried clips all the change from my pockets in the wash and at the end of the year there are more full coffee cans than you would think, the little bits add up. How many Ga-zillons are spent in Vegas every year?

"NERF" does not exist as far as I know but it seems like a name easily remembered. If I had saved any of the money I lost at the craps table I wouldn't feel like throwing up every time I think about Vegas.Some people should not go to Vegas and I am their poster child, Vegas was a hell of a blast untill I realized how much money I pissed away.