Jason mears

Hi

We have finally got our 457from a construction firm in Perth, we were told we would be flying to in November. We sold the car, got rid of furniture and handed our notices in only to receive an Email stating the mining and construction had slowed and all jobs were on hold.

Very frustrating as our lives are on hold, unable to plan or book anything, and theres no date been given to us as to when confidence will return to the market etc

Were giving it until Feb, and if theres no solid dates, unfortunately we will have to stay put

Any body shed some light on the miining situation

thanks

Happy new year

verystormy

Afraid the mining industry is having a significant downturn and it is not going to get better soon. I am a manager at a large mine in WA and we have laid a lot of staff off and will be laying off more in the next couple of months.

Jason mears

OK thanks

Koolcat

The company I work for has just done the same Jason - put their 457 visa candidates on hold - a lot of these guys are overseas but have recently had visa's granted. The company has also had to send some 457 visa holders home from here as they have lost their jobs due to a downscaling of the workforce at sites. Not good. My company are telling the 457 candidates not to expect any movement in terms of coming over in at least the next 6 months as even when things pick up there is a lot of Australian labour available and looking for work (and they can start immediatly) that will be employed as soon as there are positions for them.

I hope things change soon for you - a lot will depend on what job you are coming to do over here and how in demand your skills are - in mining there are still shortages in some roles

Jason mears

Ive been given the visa as Senior Project Engineer in Perth to work on construction bid teams to start with, then FIFO if required
i was hoping they would get me over and id be happy metro based working on tenders

From what you have said , even if we get the call , its very fickle and a lot of uncertainty when i have 3 kids, i would feel very nervous

I have offers from Qatar and Toronto which i may follow up.

Thanks all
This puts a better picture on it

Jason

paddyo

Maybe Qatar would be a good option due to the award of the World Cup and the need to start building ASAP!!

bingobob777

I agree, as a 457 Visa holder (with 2 kids) who has just been made redundant, I don't see things getting better for a while. It will get worse first.

Loads of big contracts being awarded in the Middle East in next 6 months, for the next 4-5 years that's where the money is.

Amazulu

A rare post from me on this topic. I work in mining projects and the last 3-4 months have been hit and miss. Many projects put on hold or delayed but the situation has definitely bottomed out and things are slowly getting back to normal. FMG announced a few days ago that they are restarting work on their Kings hub that they had previously delayed. Rio recently awarded a contract for a massive new greenfields iron-ore mine in the Pilbara. Roy Hill is also looking good. Iron Ore is now at about $145/t, although probably a bit overcooked at that price. $120-130 would be a more realistic price.

Unfortunately, 457s are the first to go in a downturn, and the last to be hired when it picks up - as it should be. We're recently got rid of a load of our American 457s as they were costing too much.

Good luck and hope it works out for you.

Jason mears

Thanks
These posts really help
Jason

Amazulu

Things are slowly picking up. I've just spoken to a mate who was laid off just before Christmas and he has got a start with Calibre Projects on a Rio project. Calibre are going to be ramping up recruitment from next month.