Help Wanted!

I see these signs all over the place here in Richmond, VA. The unemployment rate is ridiculously low here. The local economy seems to be doing a lot better here compared to other parts of the country. Although I think Capital One, head quartered here in Richmond, has laid off a bunch of people this year - but I hear from locals that they do that frequently (hire a ton of people and then lay them off after a couple years to keep labor costs down). The signs I see in the store windows are in the "customer service" field, but I know there's a big demand for nurses and other "technical" fields. The firm that I work for has been fortunate to have posted record earnings (or near record earnings) for several years now. We've got work coming out the ying-yang and are constantly looking for new employees. We get a $1,500 referral bonus for every new employee we get to work here. A number of our new employees are from "overseas". A couple electrical engineers are just off the boat from China and had an architect from India start recently. The demand for architects and engineers is high here and in many parts of the country. I wish more kids would consider these career fields when they're applying to college.