The 10 Worst Metro Areas for Jobs in the USA

These large cities all have only unaffordable housing to offer new employees, an unhealthy dependence on a single industry, and frequently, a poor quality of life for the middle class population. That class is finding that it is descending into the wage-worker class and even into poverty levels.

Experts in the 1950s - early 1960s once advised Americans to spend only 25% of their gross income (before taxes and deductions) on Rent and Utilities Combined! The next level of advice proppsed that Americans should spend 25% of gross income on rent along. Then it was 34% of gross income on rent by the 1990s. However, many Americans find that only 34% - 50% of their gross income will provide clean, sturdy housing in a lower crime neighborhood. The middle class in the following list of cities is overburdened by these high costs and are moving to lower-quality housing or out of town.

Business people rely on the middle class to spend money in order to increase business growth and success. However, the middle class is shrinking and suffering form a decline in their standard of living in these 10 American cities. The middle class is actually slipping into the low-income segment of the American population.

San Jose, California

Motto: The Fun Never Stops.

The decline of California's Silicon Valley has been caused by a general unhealthy attitude of hubris, very bad business timing, increasingly high costs of doing business, and concentration only in high-tech industries, without business diversification. San Jose still possesses a skilled and talented workforce, and an infrastructure suitable for high-tech entrepreneurs. However, any thoughts of diversifying the economy need to manifest and come to fruition very soon in order for the San Jose economy to recover.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio is where the Wright Brothers owned and operated their famous bicycle shop before inventing and building the airplane that flew at Kitty Hawk. Rubber was a big industry in Dayton for years, just as was the cash register business (National Cash Register or NCR). Ponderosa Steak Houses had their large HQ in Dayton with restaurants across the world. Ponderosa even reserved and paid for he space for the first restaurant on the old MIR space station. However, the chain declined before such an endeavor could ever come to life. All of these successful businesses decline in the face of IT and other hi-tech industries. Currently, Dayton has a large urban area steeped in poverty and crime (as does the smaller, nearby Springfield). Wright State University is still very active in bioengineering and other work, however, while nearby Wright Patterson Air Force Base has suffered some setbacks. Green industries and jobs could be the salvation of this city. Recently, the Dayton City Commission announced one of the largest redevelopment efforts ever undertaken in the Ohio Valley - a $230 million project to create a mixture of housing, retail, commercial and entertainment venues along Dayton's downtown waterfront. The project is called Ballpark Village.

Rochester, N.Y.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Pick your poison: metal furniture, auto parts, textiles, fiber optics. These three cities - Dayton, Riochester, and Milwaukee - all were losers in the recession and manufacturing decline occurriong 2001 - 2006. Any reversal and recovery seems slow in coming. All these city areas are victims of the rise of offshore manufacturing in China and Mexico anc outsourcing.

 New York City; San Francisco, California; and Boston, Massachusetts

Focusing only on Dot-Com success, NYC, SF, and Boston regions fforgot to keep costs down and thought the high-technology and financial service fields would keep up a very long-term business growth.

This didn't happen, because jobs in these industries declined, very much so after 2000 in the Recession that occured in last year of the Clinton and on into the transition to the George W. Bush administration. New York City, with its immigrant base, growing immigration, and successful ethnic and culture-based industries is alive, but new growth is heading to the suburbs. Even new immigrants seem to be moving out quickly.

Portland, Oregon

High costs and a prolific anti-business climate in Portland has hurt that city's chances for business expansion and success in the past.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina

Raleigh-Durham's obsessive concentration on IT and technological industries has been seen as an unhealthy lack of diversity. 

UPDATE 2009 - The Research Triangle near Raleigh has been producing increasing bumbers of josb and drawing new business into the region since at least 2008. See our links at RESEARCH TRIANGLE REVIEW. 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Hartford, Connecticut

Philadelphia and Hartford have lost out in terms of jobs and population. A recovery made in Philadelphia's downtown district has not countered high costs, political problems, and progressive decay in its outlying neighborhoods. Hartford's city continues to shrink at this time and Connecticut is an rather expensive place to do business and to live.