Oct 3, 2008 5:52 pm US/Pacific
Who's Hiring And Who's Firing In The Bay Area?
Reporting
Sue Kwon
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
Russ Hagemann's employment history mirrors the changes in the economy.
He used to work in construction, and had a career change after the housing market took a downturn.
"I worked for my Dad three years ago. It got dried up and he decided to work for the city and that's when I went to the restaurant business," said Hagemann.
His current employer Mike Wallau is reaping the benefits of the new "Employers' Market."
"I have very qualified applicants. I had an MBA come and apply for a bartender job. We are looking for upper management and they can start at $60 to $70,000 a year," said Wallu.
He posts parttime and fulltime restaurant jobs on Bay Area job listing site,
BAJobs.com.
Founder and CEO Andrew Gardiner said he's got 6,300 listings and about 800,000 job seekers a month. He said the 7.7% California unemployment rate and 6.1% national unemployment rate signal we're hitting another rough patch. But, in the Bay Area, there are unexpected opportunities.
The city of San Francisco is looking for a fiscal policy analyst, engineer, and chemist.
"The government public sector is strong and robust and very stable especially when the wheels start to wobble," said Gardiner.
Another sector seeing a little growth - healthcare.
"I see jobs with CHW, Sutter, Kaiser, The VA, nursing, and the rest of healthcare is fine. And biotech is also resilient," said Gardiner.
He said even while the troubled financial institutions are laying off workers, the smaller ones are adding on. Bank of the West is hiring 161 people in the Bay Area for positions ranging from accounting project manager to branch manager and financial consultant.
Startups are hit and miss. Many are slowing down spending.
Others have solid funding.
"Voodoo and Talkbox are cool companies that have money and need people. You won't get 11 billion stock options and become a bzillionaire but at the same time people are looking for good people," said Gardiner.
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