"Ema Nymton" > wrote in message
...
> On 5/19/2013 5:33 PM, Julie Bove wrote:
>
>>> Texas has no income tax and low business taxes, so they're not hurting
>>> for jobs. Manufacturing is moving to the South in general because of
>>> less regulation and lower cost of living aka: wages. The rest of us
>>> are supposed to ignore that those states have the Walmart mentality
>>> and always put their hands out to the Federal government whenever
>>> there's a problem.
>>
>> I know quite a few people in TX and they are having a hard time finding
>> any
>> good paying jobs.
>>
>> We have no income tax here in WA either. So?
>
>
> Unemployment in Texas is 6.4%, which makes Texas 17th, the state of
> Washington is 27th and California is 48th.
>
> http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm#Texas
>
> Becca
The unemployment rate doesn't tell me too much. When I lived in MA, they
used to brag that MA had a very low unemployment rate. I was trying like
mad to get a job and most all were minimum wage, only guarantee of 10 hours
per week. And there were all sorts of hoops to jump through to boot! One
required that I be up and dressed by 8:00 a.m. every morning. I had to stay
home in case they needed to call me in. And if they did, they could call me
to any of their locations up and down the Cape. This was a dry cleaning
place. They also requested that I wear no perfume or smoke on the days that
I might get called in to work. Because any scent of anything on me might be
off-putting to their customers. Uh... No. Don't need a job that badly!
Another was at an office supply store. That job did offer a few more hours
but also required me to make deliveries on my own time. With my own
vehicle. And they would not pay for my car insurance. The state of MA
requires anyone using their vehicle for work to have a million dollar
umbrella policy. I was already told by a taxi driver just how much this
cost. Uh. No.
Another was a full time job and good wages but would only be for 3 months
while the bookkeeper there got the child she was going to adopt adjusted
into her home. And this required me driving off the Cape every few weeks to
take some sales figures (this was a local newspaper) to their headquarters.
Uh... Ever heard of a FAX machine, people? Email? This was in the 90's
but computers were still a fairly new thing on the Cape. I almost got that
job. The woman said it came down to me and one other person out of a stack
of 2,000 resumes. That just goes to show you how scarce jobs were there.
I finally gave up and accepted a job for less than minimum wage at the golf
course on the military base. I wanted the job mainly to give me something
to do. Sure it would have been nice if I could have actually made some
money at it. But I sure didn't make much. And I had to pay MA state tax to
boot, even though I was a WA resident. MA made exceptions for military but
not their wives.
So while MA would brag of their low unemployment rate, almost all of the
people I knew who lived there were not working full time and really
wanted/needed to. But this was the Cape. May well be that people who lived
in Boston or some other area had better hours and wages. And most people
who lived on the Cape were not willing to drive to Boston daily. Some did.
My husband had to drive about 2 hours each way to get to his ship. But he
didn't do this every day because he sometimes stayed on the ship and was out
to sea for 3 month or so stretches at a time.
Looks like WA has the highest minimum wage. Good for us! But I also think
we need that here. Because the cost of living is so very high. Our
relatives in PA think we are wealthy when they heard of our income. And
they also think we are joking when we mention the cost of housing.
My nephew is 24 and he finally got a job. Part time and apprentice but he
is hoping to work full time for that company one day. Sadly, that seems to
be about the going age for the young people to find a job, any job! My
friend's grandson is the same age. He did work at a few restaurants, part
time, then a store part time and finally a good full time job at a warehouse
where they provided a really nice catered lunch daily and unlimited bottled
water. But then sales fell. And he and his friend were laid off. Took him
a very long time to land another job. And it's a retail one so doesn't pay
very well.