Arizona Sucks

If you have spent any sort of time in or around Arizona over the last few years then you had to have seen the eventual decline in construction out here coming. It was only a few years ago that the ‘Great Arizona Gold Rush’ would arrive in the Phoenix area. It prospered more than anyone would have ever imagined, promptly vanished, and would end up spoiling Arizona’s economy for years to come. It was during these golden days in Arizona that the Arizona housing market and construction industry felt as hot as a beautiful, August day out here. Loans were available for anyone and everyone, and the abuse was not about to stop there. Money was essentially being given away and everyone was encouraged to buy, buy, buy! Arizona home builders, Realtors, and home flippers were making tons of cash and many believed they were on the fast track to early retirement. Arizona residents were selling their homes for soaring profits, but quickly realized they were priced out of the market just weeks later. Construction workers were being bused in just to keep up with demand and many had projected that we would have construction jobs out here to fill for years to come. It was a crazy time in Arizona as construction flourished, property values were always higher than the day before, people were smiling, and there was a ton of money to be made if you played your cards right. For a short while, Arizona looked like the place to be or at least the place to invest your money in. So many people including Arizona Realtors, outside investors, home builders, and casual investors were certain this streak would continue and there was no way anyone was about to lose in this erupting Phoenix market.

It turned out that the only hot streak that would continue across Arizona would be our record setting number of days over 110 degrees just a couple years back. The state of Arizona and its inhabitants were left in quite a predicament once the housing bubble finally burst, banks tightened their lending practices, and the ‘free’ money had finally run dry. People were no longer moving to Arizona, the majority of residents were now priced out of the market, many builders had gone bankrupt, partially built developments were deserted, and there became little reason to continue building anything. Arizona’s economy had always been tied directly to population growth, construction, expansion, and the growing real estate market which was suddenly no longer here to assure us that the Arizona economy would continue moving right along. These days, the state of Arizona has no money left, the vast majority of Arizona residents have no money, and outside investors have all but vanished. We now have a surplus of moderately filled and deteriorating apartments, vacant office buildings all over the place, just about every strip mall in Arizona is half empty, and foreclosed homes line our streets. As artificial as it may have been, the construction boom in the Phoenix area is effectively over and wiped out a number of jobs a lot of people had always counted on being available out here.

The numbers are out, and the number of construction jobs lost in Arizona during 2009 is nothing short of depressing, especially for a state where the job market is non-existent to begin with. It has been reported that 26 percent of Arizona construction workers, or 40,300 individuals lost their construction jobs during 2009. That is a lot of people no matter how you slice it and our construction numbers had already been dwindling for the last few years. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this downturn will not affect you just because you might have no direct ties to the construction industry. The housing bubble bursting, the sharp decline in Arizona population growth, and the loss of jobs around the state is hurting everyone right now. The state, quite a few local businesses, and countless folks have run out of money and don’t know where to turn. Many people and even the state of Arizona are fishing around right now for a bailout. Numerous businesses including restaurants, car dealerships, movie theaters, and grocery stores have closed their doors and were forced to lay off a number of people. Even a number of state parks and rest areas in Arizona are in the process of shutting down for the time being. We have so many unemployed across Phoenix right now who are all stuck fighting for the same jobs that the situation becomes increasingly worse every time another industry or organization suffers a blow. The massive decline in the construction and real estate industries have effectively saturated our Arizona unemployment lines for years to come. There are just too many applicants and not enough jobs out there for everyone looking for work.

The major setback for these Arizona construction workers who are now out-of-work is that the number of construction jobs in Arizona probably won’t be picking up again for quite some time. It has been said that the Arizona construction industry is showing small signs of improving this year, but just take a look around you at all the vacant homes, office buildings, restaurants, and strip malls and it should give you an idea of just how much Arizona was overbuilt. Everyone in Arizona will pay for the overbuilding and greed which consumed so much of Arizona just a few short years ago.

If you’ve kept up with this blog and many of the reader comments, then you’ve surely seen just how many times we’ve read somebody’s story about how his or her quality of life was turned upside down upon relocating to Arizona. A lot of people get suckered into moving out here with the false claims of nice weather, cheap homes, ton of activities, great & plentiful jobs, and a high quality of life. People are easily fooled when they see the palm trees, sunny skies, pools, and nicely manicured golf courses on their TVs or in Arizona relocation guides. Unfortunately, move out here for just a week or two and you will quickly realize that you are really in for a unique and unpleasant treat. Arizona is one of those rare places where you can try your hardest to make the most of it, and you will still be left feeling worn out, defeated, misplaced, disgusted, and just sick to your stomach. There’s just something about this place and it’s scorching weather, discouraging landscape, horrifying crimes, monotony, and lack of opportunity that will really get you down and will keep you down until you can finally escape.

Many, many people have reported moving to Arizona and realizing just how unfriendly and lacking the job market really is out here. There are NO good jobs out here – well, of course there are a few but you probably aren’t going to be fortunate enough to land one of these positions. There was an abundance of fast food, retail, landscaping, call center, and other ’strip mall jobs’ in recent years. However, as it became more clear that Arizona was greatly overbuilt in the past few years, the number of these jobs are on the decline while the number of applicants is on the rise. Not a good situation for you if you had dreamed of moving to Arizona and introducing yourself to the fast-paced world of Wendys. It might already be pretty clear to a lot of people, but I cannot stress enough that nobody should ever move to Arizona to look for a job or even with a job offer in hand. You might wonder why it might be a bad idea to move to Arizona even with a job already lined up, but the answer could not be simpler. It is not worth the risk or the hassle of relocating to Arizona. If you move out here even with a great job and get laid off, it will be next to impossible to find a similar position out here. You will be forced to relocate once again or take a huge pay cut with another organization out here. That’s certainly no fun and Arizona does have some of the lowest unemployment benefits in the country should you need to file a claim. Don’t be fooled by news reports and talk of Arizona having a hot job market – it certainly doesn’t now and probably never will.

You probably thought it was bad enough when you moved to Arizona and you couldn’t find work or were stuck taking a position far below your skill level. Once you landed a job somewhere and somehow out here, you probably had the pleasure of dealing with commuting and just driving out here in general. You soon realized one day as you were driving to your dead end job, just how terrible all the construction, traffic and the drivers are out here. Other states may have more traffic, but Arizona certainly has some of the worst drivers in the country. Arizona drivers are famous for driving drunk, driving in the left lane, cutting off others, having no concept of merging, blocking people who need to get past them, not signaling, throwing caution & trash out the window, running red lights seconds after the signal change, and just about anything else you can imagine. Living in Arizona will allow you to witness some of the worst accidents you have seen in your life and the opportunity to sit in the subsequent traffic backups. Driving in Arizona is a lot like playing Mario Kart, except out here you will be forced to dodge illegals, drunks, tire debris, ladders, and old mattresses. Driving in Arizona will anger, frustrate, and quite possibly kill you.

Managing to make it out of the traffic alive and into your first day of work, you encountered some of the lowest forms of life on the planet. People in Arizona are like one giant herd of sheep with no direction, no ambition, no work ethic, and piss poor attitudes. People out here don’t care about you, and you shouldn’t care about them. Most relationships in Arizona are built solely on getting ahead or taking advantage of a situation. People in Arizona who work hard and share their own ideas will only be taken advantage of. It really doesn’t matter whether you are working the drive thru or retail or with a small business or in a corporate office building in Arizona – you will still be surrounded by these worthless, uneducated, drunk cowards. And to make matters worse, it is almost always these people who manage to get ahead out here. You will NOT grow your career in Arizona and shouldn’t even bother coming out here and giving it a try.

You surely thought that even though your job and commute in Arizona was terrible enough, you can at least have a great time at home and out on the weekends. Right? C’mon now, you have a brand new house in far, far East Mesa with a pool, and you live right next to a half vacant strip mall. Life could not sound much better to the majority of these uneducated fools in Arizona. Although, you quickly realized that life in an Arizona subdivision, as well as everyone else living in Arizona will manage to piss you off in one way or another. People out here struggle with menial tasks including grocery shopping, fueling their car, checking their mail, and even walking their dog. The majority of retail and restaurant workers out here are lazy, not knowledgeable, pushy, and just unpleasant to deal with. There is no common courtesy out here and people tend to just do what they feel when they feel like doing it. From having landscaping crews show up well before the sun comes up to tying up a barking dog for hours on end to listening to awful, deafening Mexican music late into the night to people of all ages road racing down the streets of your subdivision – you WILL encounter it all in Arizona. People in Arizona will drag you down to their level and at some point you will probably just give up and take it. The longer you spend in Arizona, it becomes more and more likely that you will be that jackass who is out with a chainsaw at 5AM, drunk, naked, and cutting down that dead palm tree in your yard. Don’t let it happen to you – leave now while you can still think rationally.

And then there’s the weather. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse out here, April arrives and so do the 100 degree days. No matter how you slice it or justify it, the fact is that the weather in Arizona is miserable for close to half the year. Don’t be fooled by the idiots who tell you there are just three hot months, and then nine months filled with the best and most beautiful weather in the world. This is not the case, was never the case, and will never be the case. Being in Arizona is close to unbearable from May to the beginning of October. The winter months are a mixture of mild and cold, but one thing is certain and that is that you won’t regularly be laying out by your pool in December like some people would like to have you believe. Tell me how a state where you are just about forced to lock yourself indoors for months on end has beautiful weather worth bragging about. The bright, hot, miserable, dusty, and lengthy Arizona summers will take a toll on your mental and physical health.

You really can try your hardest to make living in Arizona work for you. You can do the opposite of everyone else in Arizona and be friendly, work hard, go out and see what Arizona has to offer, think for yourself, drink in moderation, and strive to get ahead. Unfortunately, you will quickly realize that it is all for nothing as you sit in a dead end job and fail to build any true friendships or meaningful relationships out here. Arizona will quickly turn even the best of people into depressed, worthless, demotivated zombies who look, think, and act like everyone else. Try and justify it all you want but there is no reason for settling down out here. Ever thought your life couldn’t get any worse? Come to Arizona because it can and it will. How quick did you experience the downturn in quality of life since moving to Arizona? The first week?

The secret is out – the quantity of quality jobs in Arizona is extremely low. Finding one of the few great job opportunities in Arizona is nearly impossible, but these days people are struggling in their hunt for any sort of job out here. Obviously, the economy across the country isn’t doing too great right now, but the employment situation in Arizona probably won’t be rebounding any time soon as it will be in many places. Arizona has always been known for its call center and construction jobs, along with a number of positions tied directly to the building, leasing, and selling of local real estate. There are very few companies headquartered in the area and a limited number of jobs out here outside of the construction, real estate, and service industries. The majority of Arizona residents have always relied on working these retail, foodservice, and construction jobs and many were happy to do so – remember, the majority out here have little desire to get ahead. The great Arizona housing crash has not only successfully dropped Arizona housing prices back to reality and then some, but has also led to a depressing situation in the Arizona job market for many residents here.

As Arizona experienced record population growth in recent years, it led to a false sense of security for many and a very temporary job market. Construction teams were busy building up house after house, along with the adjacent community shopping centers. More and more service jobs were created to service all the residents in these newer communities and strip malls which shot up around Phoenix. Many people jumped into real estate and mortgage jobs in order to keep up with the temporary demand and most saw it as their gold ticket to early retirement. The mindset in Arizona seemed to to be that the population growth would continue, home values would continue to go up, and jobs were more than secure. So, now that the real estate bubble burst and took tons of real estate and construction related jobs with it, what is your now out of work Arizona Realtor or mortgage broker to do? Well, you have probably seen many of them out and about as many now work at Safeway, Burger King, Bashas’, or Applebees – jobs that a lot of people in Arizona had always relied on being available. And in a place like Arizona, this trend is likely to continue for quite some time as all those excess mortgage and constructions jobs just aren’t needed anymore.

Times are tough for your average Arizona resident and they aren’t going to be getting better any time soon. More jobs aren’t going to appear out of thin air – if anything, the number of available jobs in Arizona is actually declining. Next time you head out, count how many strip malls have vacant openings or how many grocery stores have closed down or the now empty fast food restaurant buildings. And it seems like someone finally wised up to the fact that it might be time to slow down all the new home and commercial property builds – many of which sit vacant regardless of location. These retail and service jobs were the jobs Arizona’s people had relied on for so long and many of these jobs are now done by out of work Arizona Realtors and construction workers. It was bad enough that there were never really any good jobs in Arizona, but now that there is pretty much NO jobs in Arizona – good luck!

Don’t be fooled. There are very, very few good jobs in Arizona.

Simply put, there is pretty much nothing here. The Phoenix Metropolitan area is essentially houses and strip malls. If you want to work construction (even these jobs are drying up these days) or in retail or the service industry then you will have no problem finding a job in Arizona. Minimum wage jobs are quite abundant out here and easy to find. Want to actually further your career out here? Good luck. Definitely don’t even consider moving to Arizona thinking you’ll be able to find a good job at some point. It won’t happen and you will end up supporting your family working the drive-thru window. Moving here with a job offer is a bit less risky, but if you are let go for one reason or another – you will probably be forced into moving all over again. Sure there is plenty of small businesses and start-ups out here – what nobody will tell you is many of these business cheat, under-pay, and over-work their employees. If you happen to have secured yourself one of the very few good jobs in the Valley – congratulations – just realize that this is not the norm and many Arizona residents are struggling to make ends meet due to an abundance of poor paying jobs.

Everyone always talks about all the hot new jobs across Arizona. The Arizona job market has always been a main selling point used by Realtors trying to trap people into relocating to the Valley. Sometimes it seems as though there are more jobs than people across the state. What a lot of people simply overlook is that there is a HUGE difference between quantity and quality of jobs. So, why are there so many jobs popping up across the Valley?

Growth. As more and more people decided to move to the Valley – more homes, schools, restaurants, and shopping centers had to be built. The construction industry was most affected by this growth, and countless new construction jobs were created. Most of the other hot new jobs were necessary to meet the service needs of newcomers to Arizona. Somebody has to work in the restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, and shopping malls.

As long as people continue moving to the Valley, there will always be a number of construction and service-oriented jobs. The growth has to end sometime though, right? What will happen to Arizona, its people, and an economy tied to building and selling homes when growth starts to decline?