Job opportunities?

[George Toft]

Dan Aldrich wrote:
> 
> We moved to Goodyear back in 1997. Commuted to my job in DC for a few months until it took it's toll of wear and tear on me. I was just amazed how depressed the salaries in the valley were. Finally took some work in Tucson and in 1999 we packed up and moved to beautiful New Jersey.
> 
> Overall, we found the cost of living to be not that much differnt from other parts of the country and the salaries for us IS weenies was way out of line.
> 
> -d
> 
> At 10:49 AM 2/13/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >Well then it is very much a depression!
> 
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<rant>
When I was in college studing EE & CS (circa 1978), the average starting 
salary for a newbie engineer or programmer was $20K.  My father, a senior
manual laborer, made $20K then.  Looking at the inflation rate over that 
period of time, the power of the dollar has diminished by a factor of four,
so you have to make $80K now to keep pace with inflation, and that ignores
the effects of our non-linear tax system.

In 1988 (my 10 year HS reunion), my contemporaries were making $40-50K
per year.  This was keeping pace with inflation.

Two years ago, most IT folk were making $70-90K.  Again, we are keeping
up with inflation.

People make comments about the magic salaries of two years ago - they 
were not magic - they were appropriate.  People in the Valley are kicking 
and biting for a job that pays 2/3 of what I made in the military - a group 
that is notoriously underpaid (and getting a huge raise soon) - and 1/2
of what they should be getting paid.
</rant>

George