I’m back from a few days in Dallas taking care of some family business and, frankly, I was amazed at being able to drive through Baton Rouge, Kennah and Metry with having to slow down for anything except the construction that existed pre-K. I’ve heard horror stories about driving through Baton Route these days, but I came through about noonish yesterday and had no trouble. This does not mean I’m going to risk I-10 during the rush hours or spend hours doing my Christmas shopping along Veterans.. But one advantage of living here these days is the reduced volume of traffic sometimes.

While in Dallas, I came to a busy intersection where the traffic light was under repair. The crew had set up stop signs, hoping the drivers would manage themselves at a four-way stop. Even those who knew the rules were being honked at and few people seemed to know what to do. Ha! The problem we’re having down here is that more lights are working again, so sometimes drivers used to the stop signs try to proceed against a newly-working red light.

Note to out-of-town contractors — most of you have been here a while, so can you now puh-leeeeeeeeze start acting like you’ve seen the one-way signs in my neighborhood? On this morning’s drive from Third and Laurel to the Save-A-Center on Tchoup, I saw or had to work my way around SIX different cars going the wrong way. It ain’t difficult, people. For most of you, anyway.

Now to the point of this ramble — the job situation. A month ago, everyplace that had reopened was d-e-s-p-e-r-a-t-e for employees. Many places still are, particularly if they have relied on largely unskilled folks who earned at or near the minimum wage. But it seems more and more places are now only wanting full-time folks who have skills, such as culinary, management or whatever. And more and more are specific about wanting experience. I’m wondering if we’re entering a period in which, at least for a while, more people are returning than there are jobs opening up. And I’m wondering how the return of the college students is going to affect this situation a month from now.

This is still very much a potential employee’s market. Pay scales are also much higher than pre-K. But there are signs, at least to me, that things are tightening up a bit. I’d like to see some kind of graph comparing available housing, available jobs and avaliable job-seekers. I imagine the lines will be much closer together than they were a scant 30 days ago.

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