I work in the wireless industry and have seen a strange combination of job losses but also job gains the past two years. Compaines like Intel and Kyocera have laid off hundreds, yet others like Northrop Grummon, LG, Qualcomm, Motorola are hiring like crazy. Overall, my feeling prior to reading these posts has been that the area economy and job market is booming, unemployment is low and companies simply cannot find enough talent to fill the available jobs. Even retail ‘appears’ to be strong as more and more businesses open up everywhere I look in North County, compared to the number that have closed.

I’d say 80-120k is acurate for those engineering jobs. I have seen some couples come out this way, both engineers, and they can easily make ends meet until they have children. Overall, home prices are a joke and even if things are indeed booming here now I don’t believe it will last. Companies are choosing to set up shop in other cities, people wont move here and are leaving in droves, and the fat cats using their home equity to sustain consumer spending are in for some surprises as their loans reset these next couple years!