Speaking for just the engineering industry... Prior to the recession it was almost impossible to find decent help. All you needed was a certificate from UW, WSU or Shick Shadel,... Hell, it didn't even matter if you were down syndrome and voted republican, you could land a job anywhere... all we needed were bodies to fill budgets!
But, times are a changin and a persons reputation follows them around... The dead wood of yesterday are the unemployed of today. For most of the folks that I've seen get let go it is time for a career change anyway but you will never be able convince them of that...
It would be nice to have the same growth/workload issues that we had before but then again its nice to be able to take a vacation once and a while too...
I am in the same biz. I agree whole-heartedly with your post. When I graduated, I think the guy who hired me just checked for a pulse and gave me a contract.
My boss keeps saying "The 'B' team is unemployed, and they are not allowed back in this office". In this area, even some of the A-team is unemployed. Luckily I have kept my A team intact, but every now and then I hear that a person I have coveted before is floating around and I just wish some huge project would drop so I could pick them up.
Mason county does have a little growth. I believe both of the new Bio-Gen facilities being built there, are only being built because of the Fed money available for the 'green' power. If they get caught up in red-tape (bearucratic-environmental) past the fed-money deadline for construction, they will not get completed.
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