Who doesn't like fun in the sun right? Well maybe it's time to resolve, for the New Year, to head east for sunny South Carolina in search of new job opportunities. Manufacturing is amongst the leading industries for the state and the trend is expected to continue for the New Year. Tourism is, also, big in the Grand Strand area which incidentally is looking up for 2012. Granted, we aren't talking about 100,000 new jobs to the area, but hey every job counts these days. Besides, you only need one job anyway, unless of course you're married, in which case the extra spousal income would really be helpful.

In the Grand Strand area, an above average wage is in the $15 - $20 dollar range. With wages in that range, it's a little hard to purchase a home without the extra spousal income. For those that are married and both can find work in the area, there are some really great real estate deals right about now. The local real estate market is slumped and not looking to make any significant surge during 2012. That's good news for new home buyers. Not so good news for preexisting homeowners. Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes. In any event, for the adventurous job seeker, looking to make a move, manufacturing jobs are heading east to sunny SC. This is in addition to a strong tourism industry already. That translates into job opportunities, priced to sell real estate, and fun in the sun. Sounds like a good time, to me, for investing in that beach bungalow. What else is there...are you on your way yet?

Most are aware of the current banking climate where account holders are being extorted for more and more fees. Now let’s fast forward to dream land and image banking where the people matter…dream or reality. First thought suggest dreamland but maybe it’s not entirely a dream. Let’s take Umpqua Bank for example. This bank isn’t exactly like your local banker down the street. Why well Umpqua isn’t quite as stuffy as bankers usually are. Well they’re actually people focused…imagine that. On top of that, you actually get to keep some of your money. Even crazier right? Why would you want to keep more of your money versus paying a lot of fees?

Good ideas and banking usually don’t go hand and hand but that seems to be different with Umpqua. Innovation, responsiveness, and Umpqua are terms, quite often, used in the same sentence. If you’re out looking and banking is your background then you need to check out Umpqua Bank. They are based in Oregon but also have branches in California and Washington. For Californians there are hiring for quite a few open positions now including Store Manager in Vallejo, Mortgage Loan Officer in Santa Rosa and Banking Relationship Manager in Roseville. Check out all of Umpqua Job Openings for yourself. There should not be a problem finding a good fit, after all not every bank has such a reputation as a good work environment. Hummh, people matter in banking – imagine that.

Do you have a knack for customer service? How about in the world of bits and bytes? If so, Micro Center is hiring. If you don't know, Micro Center is sort of a blend of Best Buy and RadioShack. You can find all your computer parts and accessories there from transistors to whole systems. With that in mind, a job at Micro Center likely means you should know something about computers or at least you should be able to catch on pretty quick. Hey hanging out with the tech geeks isn't the worst thing in the world. You might be lucky enough to talk one of the techies into cleaning off the spyware and viruses off your computer. Techies live for this stuff so it shouldn't be that hard of a sales job convincing them to lend a hand. In any event this is a great job for college students out for the summer looking to save up for the fall fun when school starts back. Head on over there now and start schmoozing before the mad rush gets there too. Be sure to let them know you found out Micro Center is hiring on the Job Seeker Blog.

If you don't like the personality of your local bank teller, you might be waving bye bye to your bank teller...sooner than you think. Basically, more and more bank bosses are looking for ways to cut costs. So guess whose job is at the top of the list. You guessed it bank tellers. So if the bank teller job is on the way out who/what is the replacement? How about robo-teller. Robo-teller comes in many forms, advanced ATMS offering more and more features, automated phone teller and of course the cyber-teller via advanced banking features via online banking. Before long, bank tellers will be a foreign phrase; even more so what is the future of branch banking? It doesn't look good for jobs in general as far as branch banking goes.

The irony to the attack on branch banking jobs is that most of the back office and executive level positions remain secure. Take Bank of America for example, the executive level continues to get bonus while BOFA eliminatesmore and more branch banking jobs. Makes you wonder why bank tellers and other branch positions are under fire so much these days? Sure there are the occasional situations where the "branch goes bad", like with guy from Seattle who visits his Chase branch to cash a totally valid check and in turn ends of spending a few nights in jail. Granted, the staff in that Chase branch are buffoons at best, but does this mean an all out attack on bank teller jobs is necessary? Who knows but unless you have a problem with bank teller head count reduction (and speak up), expect to wave bye bye to your local bank teller in the very near future.