>>>>> You may have to do a couple of things to get people. 1) Increase salary/benefits 2) Thechnical people are often lured to high-tech jobs, so you may need to move to the cutting edge of technology to lure them 3) Do a nationwide search and pay someone to move there.
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>>>>I wish our Corporate Personnel Director could here you say that :(
>>>>I cant find any skilled VFP programmers in my area either. Atleast not one that doesn't want a salary and relocation compensation equal to 1/2 the department's total salaries. It's to the point where corporate has all but told me to forget about hiring a permanent person and just stick to using consultants. ;) I figure that will change once they see a year's worth of consultant fees.
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>>>Now, I didn't say this....and you didn't read this....but have you thought about checking out your local government agencies? Generally, particularly at the county/state level, salaries are fixed at a specific amount (usually about 1/3 - 1/2 of the going rate in the private sector). You might be surprised at what you find.
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>>Funny, in most of Canada at the county/province level, salaries are usually about 1 1/3 - 1 1/2 of the going rate in the private sector. :-)
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>Now, now Colin. :-)
>
>Truth be told. I think I am at about 80% of the private sector. What keeps me here are the vacations (4 weeks paid, 2 weeks unpaid), the really sweet pension and some degree of autonomy in my position.

No personal attacks intended ;-) In fact, I once worked as a programmer for Canada Post at one time, so I've been on both sides of the fence. As a side note to this, I was going over a few North American salary surveys for my position and couldn't believe the spread: 29K US to 50K US and 55K Cdn.

Cheers