My first diary in a year and a half. I graduated from my university in December, 2008, with a bachelors degree. I tried to find work for a year and a half in Ohio, and got called up for one interview, for a job I was well qualified to do but paid barely over minimum wage. I didn't get any call backs about the job, and subsequent calls to ask about the status never got returned.
Even when I applied for minimum wage jobs that anyone could do, I would find out that any position that was open would get hundreds of applicants applying.
Staying with a family member until I found work, the lease was running out and I had to do something or be homeless.
A friend of my girlfriend offered us a place to stay until we got a job. But we would have to move from Ohio to Texas to do so. And given that we were running out of options, we packed up what we could, shoved everything else into a storage shed, and took off.
About a week after I got to Texas, I had already landed a simple web design gig with a marketing company. Not enough to survive on my own, but enough to get groceries and pay a couple of bills. And now I'm getting some nibbles on the job hunt, including jobs that pay more than double what my last job paid some six years ago.
I'm also finding companies that are interested in hiring me to do freelance jobs.
When I lived in Ohio, desperate for work and finding nothing, I lost much of my self-esteem. I felt like I was the problem in the job search, not the actual economy. I felt like there was no end to the unemployment, and would have to break down and apply for welfare.
In the first month of living in Texas, most of that is already gone. There's a thriving job market in this area. People pay employees what they should earn. The local economy is great. Houses aren't too overpriced and crime is negligible.
It's two different worlds in the same country.
From what I've gathered from the locals here, the reason that the economy hasn't crashed is that the local governments here have regulated the way that banks and other businesses handle real estate and so forth. Putting a house at 120% of its value in mortgages isn't allowed.
From a state where foreclosures were so great that many banks failed (Malta National Bank, Oakwood Deposit Bank Company, Miami Valley Bank, Ameribank, Inc., Peoples Community Bank, and American National Bank), to a state where foreclosures are not so common because banks got regulated, it's a clear sign that "free market" principles hurt everyone when the free market plays risky.
I never would have thought that there would be pockets of the US where the economy was still thriving. I never would have pictured myself able to get jobs again anytime soon.
All because the government stepped in and held the hands of banks that otherwise would have destroyed the local economy, too.
What can I say? I'm a romantic for being able to pay bills again.