jensteve

After a good start in OZ and hubby with brill wage he has now been put in the position of being employed but at award wage scale, a meagre $14.50 an hour.
Now I love OZ to bits but how the hell can anybody survive on that?
I have just totted up our bills and taking into account that we do not have a full mortgage only a very small one our outgoings are at lease $700 a week.

It said on the tv last night Australians wont work for award wages, does this mean its a similar situation to the UK, that they are getting so much on the dole the incentive to go out and work has gone?

I hate to say it but one of the reasons we came to OZ was to loose some of the financial burden we had in the UK and now guess what, looks like we are heading the same way over here, hubby working today to get some more cash in and me out working through an agency.

I also don't believe that half the so called skilled list is actually required, if it was the friends I have over here would all be employed as most are skilled, its nothing unusual for someone to end up in a completely different job because their given trade is not required, or at least not for migrants.

How many people when the get to OZ find the job situation is awful but never say so on here, pride has a lot to do with it and the feeling of being a failure.

Jenny

But once again OZ is a lovely place to live, so I am being positive on that.

sackofspuds

It was this risk of going somewhere only to get "hot and poor", as one contributor to this board once put it, that was behind my cancelling our air tickets to Adelaide yesterday.

Sophie Louise

Jenny,

Ignore the name - I'm sophie's partner Kye, I am an Aussie who has been living in the UK now for about 2 years.

One of the reasons I left australia is that finding work after I graduated university was very difficult. I'd spent about a year looking for graduate work and missed completely. I ended up thinking "stuff it" and sold everything with a 1 way ticket to the UK. Once in the UK I had a decent job offer by the end of the second week.

Now we are planning to go back to OZ and work is my biggest concern. I work in recruitment in the UK so I have a first hand knowledge of the work market here and I know that it is slightly different to australia. There is a general skill shortage in both countries (unemployment rate in aus is 4% uk 3%) but currently unlike the UK aus tends to look for people with experience. The biggest difference though between aus and the UK is that work is centralised.

What I mean by this is you can just about live anywhere in the UK and there will be a decent employer near you. Especially if you live in the south. In Australia you MUST live a commutable distance from a major city. If you dont you wont find work. The number of times I've watched "get a new life down under" and screamed at the tele dont buy a house there there wont be any work.

Now if you do live near a major city I would suggest that you aren't talking to the right people. Assuming you came in on a skilled visa and that you and your husband are both skilled workers I would suggest you need to talk to different agents. Also recruitment agencies in australia are relatively young in comparison to the saturation level they have reached in the UK. So unlike the Uk in Aus they aren't the be all and end all of finding a job.

Dont lose hope on the job front. They are out there its just a little more difficult then it is in england. If you had a good job in england you should find a good one in aus. Something silly to remeber is that for some reason english experience is often counted higher then aussie xp.

As for the wellfare benefits some people do feel they are better off not working. That said I wouldn't want to go down that path. Australia has a strong wellfare system that aids those who are low income make ends meet but I didn't know anyone who dropped out to accept them alone.

and finally,

According to the immigration department the current average weekly expenses in Aus for a family of 4 is $733 per week so you are fairly average at the 700 mark. The other thing to consider is that in Aus in most family's both the parents work. They work becasue it is necessary to make ends meet.

Hope my rambling has made sense. To sum it up dont lose hope. You should be able to find something. Have a look at careerone.com.au and see if there is anything suitable there. Also this website is a network of people with a vested interest in helping each other! What do you do and where do you live? Someone on here may know a job just for you.


Good luck,

Kye

sackofspuds

Hiya

Where are you planning to return to? Are you working for a recruitment agency in the UK? If so, what does it specialise in?

Siren & Brian

Tell them where to shove it I reckon at that price. From what I know Steve does he should be looking at something like $25 an hour on a fulltime employment. Plus all the other perks, holiday, sick, super.

jensteve

Thats what he gets roofing, that is if his boss prices the jobs and has work, he hasn't had anything for 3 weeks, his boss pinned all hopes on 1 big job and it hasn't happened.
He's out now trying to find some bricklayers to see what he can do labouring.
Steve really wants to stay away from roofing, he wanted something to spend the next 20years doing until he retires, he likes the removal company but not the wage. Decisions, decisions what to do.
We still have some money but don't want to use it all trying to survive.

Am also debating about my first plan, a pet shop, anyone know what a pet shop takes over here? accountants please amswer that one. I priced premises up and they where quite expensive so I was hoping takings would be good, I can't really walk into the pet shop in woodvale and ask how much they do.

Any ideas anyone?

Jenny

Quinkana

Considered the mining and processing industries?

For example only:
BHP Billington - jobs

Could mean you might be separated for 2 or more weeks at a time.

Before considering opening a shop look at the traffic and takings of existing shops - see a business broker.

ABCDiamond

Jenny

Heres a suggestion:

Contact another pet shop, NOT in your area, explain what you are thinking, but also say that as you don't have contacts in the area, you may be interested in buying stock from/with them, and can they give you an idea of how well a business would operate.

In one of my old businesses, I helped others to start up, but not in "MY" territory, by helping them with initial stock purchases, and general advise in helping them get started. It paid off for both of us, as they continued to purchase about 25% of their stock from us, even after they settled in, and located their own suppliers.

E=mc2

You let somebody on an internet forum change your mind for you?

The way we see it. If you don't try you will never know.

Re-book those tickets.

sackofspuds

No, one comment wasn't enough to change my mind for me. You can read my reasoning here.

I have already "tried" to some extent - lived and worked in Sydney for 4 years in the early '90s, which explains the dual nationality. I've visited umpteen times.

hevs

Don't loose hope Jen.

We took a massive step back on the wages front when we first got here. (well over £20k) But Matt stuck at his job (which he grew to hate) for 6 months, got some Aussie work expierience (VERY important overhere it would seem) and then applied for some others and bingo, easy peezy and a huge pay rise to boot. (I think SOME companies try it on when you're "fresh off the boat")

Then i got a part time job and within a week our household income went up by 80%!!

Its taken us nearly 16 months but we are clawing our way back. It wasn't easy, but its happening and it all adds to the "settled" feeling Good luck.

jensteve

At least I had some replies and all positive, I hate to be negative about OZ but when people say same s--t different bucket there is a lot of truth in it.
I know when your in the application process that negative threads on here really do get a bashing, but sometimes there is something very real to be said.

Australia is a lovely place to live, I am very settled and won't be going back to the UK, all I can say is we are really lucky to have bought cash with us, without it I reckon we would have major problems with housing and would have remained renting for ever more. The mortgage we have is very small and how anyone without funds will afford a full mortgage mystifies me.

I can see why so many return to the UK, but I think they are the ones who have kept in contact with previous employers etc and go back and straight back into their old jobs. We on the other hand do not have that option so wont be going back.

We will probably set up a business in the hope of higher wages out for us, and then OZ will be everything we dreamed of. I am thinking of business ideas that would include some of the other expat wifes, this is when panic hits and my phone starts ringing he he.

Jenny

Jacko1

Here, Here

Most of the Subbies working with me would not consider less than $28/hr

Paul J

Sophie Louise

Planning to return to Brisbane. We both work for UK recruitment agencies at the moment. I specialise in civil engineering, and Sophie specialises in Architectural recruitment. What about yourself?

Kye

chippy dave

Hello paul,

Does that rate apply to carpenters aswell.Also is the building boom still on over there at the moment.
cheers dave