According to MSN Real Estate, Peoria is one of the ten best places for starting over; i.e., Peoria is one of “10 midsize to large cities with the best job prospects and most affordable mortgage payments.” The list is:
- Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
- Kalamazoo-Portage, Mich.
- Rochester, N.Y.
- Oklahoma City
- Peoria, Ill.
- Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Ark.
- Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn.-Bristol, Va.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Fort Wayne, Ind.
Here’s what they had to say about our fair city:
Employment gains in Peoria are setting it apart from some of its Midwest rivals. The city is working to grow small businesses with a technology incubator that opened in 2007.
A new entertainment project, The Block, with an interdisciplinary museum, theater, planetarium and The Caterpillar Experience will open along the downtown riverfront in the fall of 2012.
With an average home price of just $140,666, residents here can afford to take in all that the city has to offer on the weekends.
I think it’s interesting that they didn’t mention (for example) the recently-expanded Civic Center, which we have, but did mention “The Block,” which won’t be opening for more than a year. Regardless of what I think about the museum, this write-up makes Peoria sound like it doesn’t have much in the way of entertainment — and won’t until next fall. Why not highlight some of the amenities we already have?
Hat tip: homemade and happy
REALLY!
who did the press release/provided the information? that will answer your question CJ.
Not a spade of dirt moved for Caterpillar Experience and still on track for 2012?
CityLink got new buses!
I’m not sure what dirt is being spaded for what project, but something is happening at the site. Live webcam, updated every 5 seconds…
http://www.buildtheblockcam.com/
Wow, we might even get some taxpayers to actually fund some of the projects we don’t need….think of it. More money for the Council to toss down the drain.
Jobs? WHAT Jobs? Y’mean, a job over $8.15/hour?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha…
The article said professional jobs specifically. Cat and others face an engineer shortage. We are pulling from other countries because u.s isn’t producing only about 1/5 of what are currently needed.
Cat and others are pulling engineers from other countries because the labor is cheaper.
Jon, I was referring to the need here in Peoria. rather than overseas plants.
Paul, does CAT have more engineers in Peoria today – or three years ago? As you probably well know, much engineering (mechanical, electrical, etc.) can and is done globally.
The engineer “shortage” – and the need to seek them from overseas – isn’t because we don’t produce enough engineers.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9910492
just saw a story on the national news last night. USA has 1 million engineer jobs available today. Universities are only pumping out 200,000 of them per year. Have small business men and CAT headhunter friends looking for engineers, India is producing a larger number of them and they are coming here for employment. Note Peoria’s expansion of this ethnic group. I do not know the number of engineers now or three years ago, am only reporting what I am being told in the community by those looking for them.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7370107n
here’s the link
First of all, the article you referenced states “We have one million science, technology, engineering and math jobs available in this country right now. And only 200,000 graduates qualified to fill them.” Those aren’t engineering jobs alone. The majority of any shortage exists primarily with computer science type jobs.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2009/db20091027_723059.htm
Further, as that businessweek article points out, we produce a substantial number of engineers who seek other, higher paying professions (including at CAT – where many engineers are hired instead into the marketing dept.) The DuPont CEO in your CBS article is really complaining that we don’t have enough CHEAP U.S. born science, technology, math and engineering workers. (which also thus conveniently helps to justify the claim that many U.S. companies have no choice but to go outside the U.S. for such employees). If we really had such a shortage, wages would be rising much more rapidly.
Also, don’t buy the India hype. The “engineers” that India claims to produce aren’t “engineers” the way the U.S. generally views them. A mechanic would constitute an “engineer” in India. Certainly India is a threat for qualified workers – but they still have a long way to go – and when they catch up, they won’t be working for 1/4 the wage.
Yes, now is a good time to be an engineer in Peoria, relatively speaking. That’s largely because CAT and its related businesses cut back on so many engineers in late 2008 and all of 2009. I also say “related businesses” because for at least the past decade CAT doesn’t hire as many engineers directly (i.e. as a CAT employee) as it utilizes outsourcing companies who do “project” work for CAT. These outsourcing companies are both local and global – many of the local employees do not work in a CAT facility. When the economy gets rough, the “trough” as CAT describes it, the outsourced workers are generally let go before the CAT employees.
The hiring you’re seeing now is generally for less secure CAT-related jobs that were lost over the past 2-3 years and have yet to reach the level they once were at.
Mr. Palmer – perhaps you haven’t driven around “The Block” during the past couple of weeks, but you’d now see that River City Construction has begun work on the CAT Experience with initial site prep work although the heavy rain earlier in the week flooded them out for a few days.
Be that as it may, I’ll certainly agee that the planned opening in OCT 2012 (which would be only 15 months away) certainly seems in jeapordy, especially for the Museum. Wonder when Mr. Beasly from the PRM Board will give us an update on their schedule.
Glad to hear that Cat has started construction. Are the designs on line to see what it will be?
It is no secret that modern news is not journalistic news with research behind the topics they report. More often our news is a distribution channel for quickly written articles and re-dubed press releases. I’d say the article is wrong on the basis of knowing how long we were (still are?) 2nd behind Rockford in terms of leading unemployment for the state, and I suspect some large depressed areas of our fair city having exceedingly cheap homes are weighing down that average home price they cite.
Mr. Palmer, the only place I know of where you can find an updated review of the CAT design plans for their facility is the material included in the City Council agenda for April 12th of this year, Item #5. I believe that Item before the Council was necessary for the Council to approve their design as required in the Redevelopment Agreement prior to the title transfer of the land. But that material shows their latest design for the building.
Start over in Peoria? Start over doing what?
The local hospitals have already begun layoffs in anticipation of Obamacare.
Cat is going to put a division up for sale later this year. That (external client) division has approximately 5000 people worldwide, with most in the USA. Perhaps others on this website would know more.
Add to that the record numbers of houses for sale in Morton:
http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/Morton,IL/price;d_sort/
Hey Moe….Look!