When there is no growth in the national products is when it is
a recession. When national media, keep calling it a recession,
people start calling it one and that is not so.
Since the unemployment rate is an average, yes places like
Michigan and especially Detroit are at the high end of it. I know
a few people who kept lousy jobs in Detroit just until they found
employment outside of Michigan.
Texas’s high employment rate has been going on a few years and
has a lot to do with our tax scruture, our ability to reach out to new businesses, limits on liability settlements (hence 40,000
plus new doctors have been applying each year to practice here)
and other favorable business. It’s not perfect, some of our fees
have increased, but overall it’s in good shape. El Paso has a
higher unemployment rate that other cities in Texas, but it is
still much lower than than it’s average.
Definitely our oil businesses are booming, but we’ve paid the
price when they weren’t. Small companies are uncapping
wells that they had to shut down years ago. Many people
went under.
The sale of houses also depends on getting a mortgage and even
people with good credit have had to wait longer for approval, the
companies are much stricter than they were. I know a couple
of families who qualified a few years ago with an adjustable
mortgage. Luckily, they realized the pitfalls of it and instead
of buying new furniture, etc for their new home, they saved every
penny they could and two years later “converted” to a flat rate
mortgage. If they had not done so, they would have been among
the foreclosed.
Some in our family were out of work for over a year. In the one
case, the spouse went to work (at lesser pay but enough with
their savings and frugality) the other did contract jobs and also
used savings. None would accept much from others, but gifts
of clothes, friends getting together to fix major repair work that
would have been very expensive, etc. helped them out.
Needless to say prayers throughout and networking finally paid
off and both are in jobs today. One is a temp, but looks good
for the exposure to good companies in his field, the other is a
job, that pays less but gives him less travel time and more family
time, so they are happy.
Do I know others are in the same bind? Absolutely! I just don’t
like the pessimism that is encouraged day in and day out in the
media. I avoid listening to it, because it discourages me. (I’m
in sales and , blessedly, I offer services people need whenever.
I may do better at other times, but I can always find someone
who needs what services I offer. Let’s just say some of the
commission I get is sometimes that I was able to help with
information and got satisfaction from it.)
