Housing market affected?? Nokia ends Sanyo venture plan, to ramp down CDMA

[burger007]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060622/bs_nm/nokia_cdma_dc

I have friends over at Nokia here in San Diego, this could easily have an effect on the housing here as well, there is probably around 1000(not sure on the exact number but its a friends guestimate) employees left after the last layoff(closed down a divison here) in the beginning of the year. And if you read the article, they will be taking a “190 milliion restructuring hit” the next quarter, i have been through a restructuring before and I was not affected, but it bascially ended up being a layoff in waves of 200 people and eventually closing down that part of the biz.

Other places in the area hiring for telecom have been some small startups and Gov’t defense contract(Northrop) and Qualcomm, some motorola(not much). It will be interesting times.

[Nancy_s soothsayer]

Same story goes with Kyocera – (former) manufacturer of cell phones in San Diego. Software engineer jobs at Kyocera have been getting outsourced overseas in recent months. The huge manufacturing plant around La Jolla now sits almost empty like a ghost town. High-paying jobs in San Diego are slowly dying away –ditto, “RIP-San Diego”.

This soothsayer says, because of the equity or wealth destruction coming in the next few years in SD, compounded by loss of high-paying jobs, there will be many people who will feel psychological discouragement and will use their displaced energies (that in previous years were spent shopping for garage thrash and toys greased by housing ATM)venting and lashing out. Rage will be seen in so many forms. Some in crystal ball: Road rage will intensify; SUV and car torchings will gain attention; office politics will become meaner and nastier; grifters and con men will come out of the woodworks – not to mention property thefts and vandalisms. Assessors office will be saddled with housing property tax reassessments like you’ve seen in 1994-95. To pick up the pieces off the floor of the housing crash, many will find their salvation by moving away from San Diego.

[carlislematthew]

Road rage will intensify; SUV and car torchings will gain attention; office politics will become meaner and nastier; grifters and con men will come out of the woodworks – not to mention property thefts and vandalisms.

News at 11: Dog bites man.

Does anyone have any statistics about the decline in high paying jobs in San Diego? It’s easy to point at a few companies that are laying people off and extrapolate that to the rest of the town.

My own experience is a little different. Since watching the job market for software people (like myself) in San Diego since the beginning of the year, I’m amazed at how tight the market has become. My standard “search agent” on Dice.com is pulling up 693 positions that match the search I’m doing. Companies I talk to are hiring like mad, and recruiters complain about not being able to find the right people.

Sure, this could change at some point. These things are cyclical. But to say that the high paying jobs are slowly dying away, well, that doesn’t doesn’t fit with my experience.

Hence, the request for real numbers. Neither of our experiences are entirely representative of what is happening out there.

[sdrealtor]

Nancy I believe you need to get ahead of the curve and move now. Good luck. Mississippi beckons!

[waiting hawk]

Funny to see a realtor spend so much time on a bubble forum. Work must be great!!!

[sdrealtor]

If it was slow I would be on the beach not in the office not finishing up work on the 3 closings I have this month! Those worthless listings I keep taking are all selling. I love it!

[waiting hawk]

Good to see used car sales picking up.

[an]

What’s with these personal attacks. Please take the high road.

[powayseller]

Nancy, what industry are you in, and what are the statistics? Do you see outsourcing or people leaving San Diego?

The May 2006 Labor Market Info report shows PBS decreasing. This is the category that the UCLA Anderson Forecast saw as the ray of hope for San Diego, because of some prior gains in the year. Now this category is decreasing. Hmmmm, what is the ray of hope for San Diego? And are the job openings mentioned above in S/W actual openings, or just some classifieds placed so they can keep looking for some future opening? What is the actual change in software engineer positions over the last few months? Do you think they are having a hard time finding people to move here, as we discussed with Qualcomm?

Why is the person above not getting hired for one of these 693 job openings – low pay, not qualified enough? Can all of you elaborate?

[carlislematthew]

And are the job openings mentioned above in S/W actual openings, or just some classifieds placed so they can keep looking for some future opening? What is the actual change in software engineer positions over the last few months? Do you think they are having a hard time finding people to move here, as we discussed with Qualcomm?

Most of them are actual openings. The hot market right now is for developers using newer Microsoft technologies, and also wireless and video stuff.

I’m looking for a higher level position – i.e. management/techical architecture. This is much harder to get into in this town right now, partly because there are just less of these positions, and partly because when S/W booms and gets hot, developers are the first in the door, and *then* they’ll hire management later when it gets insane and they’re missing all their deadlines. (BTW – looks like I’ll have two offers within the next week – fingers crossed!)

I’m not sure of the actual increase in number of positions. I don’t track it, just mentally note the increase and desire of employers. I had one company try and convince me to get back into programming for a salary of $120,000! They were desperate to find someone.

Yes, I do think they’re finding it hard to get people to move here, but not so much in the higher paying jobs. If I was on anything near a median salary I would NEVER have moved to San Diego. But don’t underestimate how attractive San Diego (or SoCal in general) is in terms of climate. I know several people in Seattle that are busy plotting how to get to SoCal. A household salary of $200K can go a long way, even in silly-expensive San Diego. Instead of a wonderful 3000sq ft house by a lake, we’ll buy a very nice 2000 sq ft house in Encinitas. It may be annoying in terms of value for money, but it’s certainly livable.

[sdrealtor]

and you will love living in Encinitas! It is truly a community which is rare in SoCal.

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