Whenever you make a move, you want to be sure that the economy of the location you are moving to will be able to support you and your household. The last thing you want is to buy a piece of St. Louis Missouri real estate and find out that a high cost of living and a high unemployment rate will result not just in you giving up hockey camps for your kids, but maybe even downgrading your entire lifestyle as well!
One of the best ways to judge the overall strength of a city's economy is through employment statistics. These can tell you how many jobs are available in the city, what the average person living there makes, and how diversified the economy is. Strong numbers on the industrial side will tell you that there is a good foundation of manufacturing fabricated strainers and other goods in the city, which is good news for almost all other sectors. Let's take a look at some St. Louis statistics and what they tell us about living in the city.
One of the first numbers that people look at when it comes to employment statistics is the unemployment rate in a given area. This tells how many people of working age are without any kind of job whatsoever. Currently, the St. Louis rate sits at 9.7, the highest it has been at in two decades. These numbers are the result of the national recession, which has hit many American cities. In fact, the number of people looking for any work, from lagoon cleaning to road paving, is right on par with the national average.
That means that people in St. Louis are just as likely to find a job here as anywhere else, if they are looking. What those statistics don't tell us, though, is that St. Louis unemployment numbers fall dramatically the more specific training a person has received. This is a pretty basic economic concept. Most people can be trained in the manufacturing of copper lugs and other industrial processes. When a major plant closes down, then, the people who become unemployed may not have the training to work anywhere else.
In St. Louis, training and specific education can mean your chances of finding a job are heightened greatly. Those who have earned a two year college diploma in any field, for example, have an unemployment rate of only 5.4%. Four year degrees sit at a rate of 3.7%. As a service sector city with several high end companies present, there is employment to be found in St. Louis, as long as you have the right credentials.
Of course, the lower the unemployment rate as a whole, the better business is for everyone. New Canadian franchises have a better chance of success in the city when those numbers are under 5%, as they were three years ago. Still, when it comes to weathering the economic storm, St. Louis numbers show that it can compete with most cities in the country.
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