Also considering checking for employment openings at universities. You may have to check individual websites for each univerisity for openings. I say this because I notice that in my city, openings at the local universities are rarely posted on internet websites or even in the paper, but they are listed on their websites. Pay may be of lower scale, but usually the benefits are good.

Jim & CK,<BR>I found this site strictly for IT/IS jobs in the Jax area. Try checking it out. http://jacksonville.computerwork.com/cfm-bin/jobsearch/quick_search_do.cfm<BR> <BR>Of course there is the Navy in the Jax area. They sometimes have openings for civilians. Then you have many other employers like:<BR>BancBoston Mortgage<BR>Baptist Medical Center<BR>CSX Transportation<BR>Flowers Bakery<BR>several insurance companies<BR>several banks<BR>Jacksonville Port Authority<BR>several hospitals & colleges<BR><BR>Do I get a fee if you get a cushy job??? Just kidding-- good luck!

CK start putting the resumes out. I am soon to be out of work and your position seems to be what is in demand.<BR><BR>I am in my 40's also if you love these places go for it but with your background why not consider something more adventurous? Sure the glamorous cites are tougher, more competative but they are also more interesting. Often they are better hubs for getting out of town.<BR><BR>Something else you might want to remember unless you are really able to land yourself a good spot, do you want to be stuck in a small city if you have lay off problems again. Sorry you are having a time of it on this search. I know I will be in your shoes by January. Thanks for the wake up call.

Yes, good idea to take a job doing something else especially if you are a recent grad as my daughter. Her degree is in Biology. I thought that is suppose to be a great field but without experience it is not easy. Also the pay is not so great either. I think it is also a good idea to be try Universities. Good luck. I know it is tough out there.

CK:<BR><BR>You mentioned that you were considering OH as a possibility. I'm not in the tech field, but I can tell you that overall, it's pretty bad here. <BR><BR>You might try Bank One or Key Bank. Seems that for some strange reason, the banks are about the only ones hiring around here.<BR><BR>I've been out of work for 14 months, and as you can imagine, I'm getting pretty desperate.<BR><BR>So, speaking of which, anyone out there know where it's relatively good for marketing/PR jobs?<BR><BR>Thanks, and good luck to all of us unemployed out there!

My friend is in Marketing/Acct and has been out longer than my 18 months. Good Luck to everybody affected by this job situation! Anita, if I find a job there, I will thank you in person and buy you a drink!

Jacksonville smells

I'm in the DC area and work in IT. I've always heard this place has tons of jobs in this field. DC, MD, No. VA.<BR><BR>Laura

Thanks to everyone for your replies! Any other ideas or names of great recruiters?

Routine IT jobs don't qualify for the H1B program. I pay $3,000 in fees for every H1B I hire. These employees are no cheaper than Permanent Residents or US citizens. And if I could find a qualified citizen I would always hire them first. I've hired H1B people from other companies and then unfortunately had them affected by a lay off. They have 10 days to find a job or leave the country. Can you imagine anything more disruptive to your life?

That may be true, HR Director, but the problem with our immigration service is that they don't enforce their own laws. There are literally tons of people living here with unexpired visas or no visas at all and nobody knows anything about them. We learned the effects of that policy the hard way on 9-11.

R: That's another topic all together. They may not leave but they can't work legally. This thread seemed to be about them taking US jobs.

There seems to be a great deal of growth in Reston, VA, otherwise, you might check out the technology belt areas in the Route 128 and Route 495 areas in Massachusetts.<BR><BR>Have you considered applying to Micro Soft?

I had no idea IT jobs were this tough!!my hubby just got out of the military and walked into a great IT job as a network specialist. His starting pay 62,000. The funny thing is that he is a graphics illustrator by trade but the company is desperate for folks who are familiar with the military environment and computors that they hired him. The good news is that we are in Germany and the money is tax exempt.We were already here with the military and he decided he had enough. One application, one interview and a nice job offer with a two year visa and it was later...to the military. Either my hubby was at the right place at the right time or he is just lucky...Keep trying and check out this company as they are a big govt contractor www.saic.com

I live in Atlanta and although am not in computer related field my sister-in-law was recently laid off from major firm, as was many others. I will not get into the people they retained but it was obvious to the ones they laid off who were the non "natives" they retained. It is a sad state of affairs in our U. S. Of A. today. In any case good luck to you.

Thanks again for the replies and wishes of luck. I'm getting pretty disheartened. Anyway, there is more of a demand here in Chicago as well for network people and from the job posts I have seen that are government related, it is a plus when people already have security clearance.

<BR>http://newsandobserver.com/front/story/1738752p-1751588c.html<BR>

CK do you have experience working with Oracle? My husband is pretty well connected in the industry. He said if you have Oracle experience he may be able to assist you.

Kate,<BR><BR>My main development background is C, UNIX and relational database development - over 10 years with a Lucent proprietary language and 2 years of Oracle and 1 year of Informix previously. I know I could transition quickly - it is just a matter of getting my foot in the door and getting myself trained/retrained quickly which I know I can do. Database development/administration is exactly where I would love to be right now. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

tt