America's Most Stressful Cities

Every year Forbes comes out with a list for the most stressful cities in America and right now we have four cities in the Northwest that are in the top 15 out of 40 cities listed. They determine how stressful a city is by the quality of life factors, unemployment rate, median home prices, population density, and the number of sunny days in a city. The four cities that I mentioned are:

15. Sacramento, Calif.
With a June unemployment rate of 11.6% and a year-over-year median home price drop of 34.5%, it's a good thing the number of sunny and partly sunny days in the Sacramento metropolitan areas is high, measured at 265 days in 2007.
Read on for more lifestyle coverage, including information on the most expensive places for health care and best cities for a housing recovery.

14. Portland, Ore.
Portland takes the No. 1 spot for the least amount of sunny days of the 40 metropolitan areas we examined--only 142 in 2007. Another drawback is its 11.7% June unemployment rate.
Read on for more lifestyle coverage, including information on the most expensive places for health care and best cities for a housing recovery.

11. Seattle, Wash.
Seattle scores high for its ninth highest cost of living and low amount of sunny days--only 164 in 2007. Unemployment was just slightly below the national rate at 9.3% in.
Read on for more lifestyle coverage, including information on the most expensive places for health care and best cities for a housing recovery.

6. San Francisco, Calif.
The Golden Gate city takes the No. 1 spot for its 42.7% year-over-year median home price drop. It holds the No. 2 spot for high cost of living. Its sunny weather and good air quality, however, lower its rank on the stressful cities list.
Read on for more lifestyle coverage, including information on the most expensive places for health care and best cities for a housing recovery.

After seeing the list, do you agree with the cities listed? Or should there be others added to the list? Please leave your comment in the section below.

Companies At The Job Fair And Job Fair Tips

We are exactly a week away from the 3rd job fair of the year for the Portland Employment Guide. By now most people are wondering who is going to be present, so they can plan accordingly for the job fair. Well as of right now we have nearly 20 companies signed up and ready to go! Here is the list:


August 18th Companies

After figuring out who is going to be there you might need to know some tips on how to approach the job fair. Here are 10 tips to help you stand out from the crowd:


Top 10 Job Fair Tips

We here at the Employment Guide are very excited about the job fair next week! We really look forward to seeing everyone there and hope that things work out for those coming. I also just wanted to say that this is my 100 post, so thank you for all of those who read this!

Odds And Ends

Here are some links I thought everyone might be interested in locally:

• Workplace problems can be common and hinder you from actually getting your work done. So here is article with a couple of question that deal with workplace problems.
• Here is a great article on how the community around 50th and Division are surviving this recession.
• The demand for food stamps has jumped nearly 30% since last year at this time.
• The jobless rate has dipped slightly but it is nothing compared to the 5.3% that it was at this time last year.
• This might be some really good news, if you have been following the whole fiasco with where the Portland Beavers are going to play after the 2010 season.

I also came across some article that do not have local ties that I thought were interesting:

• With the job market being so thin these days, everyone wants to help you with your resume.
• Spherion Career Blog wants to warn you about job scams.
• Jobless benefit rolls drop for the first time in months, and work productivity is up.
• Facebook is a great social networking tool that just turned 5, but they have not seen any profits. Will they last another five years?

So Portland, what website do you check out that I need to follow? Feel free to add to my list of websites or leave any comments in the section below.