viviennef

Hey Knock off nige

The thing is that its seasonal. christmas for Australians is summer holidays - recruitment goes right down from November - March - every year recession or no recession. Talk to any contractor and they will all tell you that they make sure that they are in place on a contract by November that will carry them through this time. People take longer holidays, companies get ready to carry their staff without enough work.

This happens every single year (we have been here for 6 and I lived here for 3 before). School is out and people dont tend to recruit knowing potentially good candidates may be on hols too.

It will get better - you just need to hang out until everyone stops renovating, enjoying summer and gets back to work.

It may be a bit harder this year although I am not convinced - there seems to be more IT around than usual.

I buy heaps of stuff to do around the house while I have money and now my husband is quiet he has this huge pile of DIY just waiting and cant complain we cant afford it.

If you are after IT contracts, I would have said to spend christmas in Canberra - they usually have 3 month contracts there when other areas go dry.

I dont think I would wait to migrate for this to pass but thats just my opinion. What I would do is maybe not spend all my cash having a great christmas like I am a millionaire with pounds on holiday (which is what I did for 6 months)

What do you do?

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Want a feel of what its really like here.... a few weeks back Bluescope Steel asked for a share trading suspension while they announced a 'capital intensive' exercise.... in good times that would have been seen as an obviously positive announcement coming... these are not good times. I live close too, and work in, Wollongong. The home of Bluescope. The entire city held its breath, fearing either massive job losses or possibly the entire shutdown of the Port Kembla steel plant... in the end it was the bringing forward of a furnace re-line... and did actually bring work to the city... but that fear hung over the offices I work in for a couple of days.

jad n rich

I agree with the poster who's mentioned seasonal. December/early january is not the best time to look for work. That problem is over just about now ( mid january) .

Construction - Major projects are planned approved financed up to 2/3 years ahead of being built. Houses are planned approved financed up to a year before they are built. Work may still look busy - that work was approved ages ago.

But Construction approvals NOW have fallen big time, ( I posted some stats the other day ) that will flow on as a lack of jobs and it is already slowing.
This is not just one area, this is most of australia - things have slowed and approvals make it look like it will slow more. That raises a problem or two for newcomers, there are many experienced people already looking for work, who you know is even more important, and some workers start to drop rates to get work.

I personally dont think any industry is not going to be affected, I wonder if even nursing is that safe, ( granted safer than many things ) look at what the first slash the goverment has had?, big cuts to Hospital budgets and beds and holding off on new development of Hosptial projects. ( All this in a country with a dire shortage of hospital beds already :curse: )

Someone mentioned Rudds handouts - good point. Yes they keep things afloat, but they have to be clawed back and paid for, the extremely generous welfare system also gives battlers ( dole bludgers ) a huge safety net despite all the winging. Huge family payments also keep things afloat, but long term, and with more and more people set to claim these payments as work drops off, (pensions claims increased 50% the last few months as aussie superannuation went down the drain) I think austraias handout mentality in itself will cause it big problems

iamthecreaturefromuranus

That's an interesting perception... I work for the second largest IT employer in Oz. We have thousands of staff employed here and do work for companies in almost every field of business, from Government to mining.

We were effectively ordered on holiday over Christmas to save money amid dire warnings of job losses. We already have teams understaffed, including my own, but we won't be filling any positions in the near future and any contractors still left working for us are now on very, very thin ice.

Slider

I think that Australia is not being pinched anywhere near as much as the UK and I doubt that it will do either.

My advice to anyone not yet over here is that you need to look hard at your present situation & how secure your job really is.

Retail in the UK is getting hammered right now and you can be sure that manufacturing and services will take a beating later on.

Companies over here are tightening their belts and some are going down, but nothing like the big names that are going down in the UK.

I reckon things will pick up some what this year in Oz.

As for looking for roles while in the UK - it did me no good whatsoever, but my wife got a secure well paid job that sponsored her on 457 with only a phone interview.

If i were still back home I'd still be aiming to come over but maybe postpone until March and bring as much cash as possible & plan to live very frugally just in case.

I don't regret it at all and very happy over here.

betsyboob

All we can do is post our experiences,whether people take it on board or not is up to them.
Nobody is trying to 'stop people from coming to Oz', just, through posting our own experiences perhaps make them more aware of what COULD happen. ie. if someone is coming over with no money in their pocket and is BANKING on getting a job as they got off the plane, it may be best to save a few quid before the move, or research where the best area is for work.
We hope that people do get jobs, my experience is that we are tied in a rental and there is very little work around in our area and we have a family to support.
I hope that people DO come to Oz, but with the correct planning for their individual circumstances.

betsyboob

If i were still back home I'd still be aiming to come over but maybe postpone until March and bring as much cash as possible & plan to live very frugally just in case.

exactly

knockoff nige

I understand that we are in summer and so things are slower. but things are slower this year than other years. With all these job cuts, no matter how many jobs you see advertised, there are plenty of good applicants applying for them. it may look like you have the choice of 70 or 80 jobs but the reality might be much less considering how many of these companies favour local knowledge. if I had local knowledge, i'd be in a good job already. i know this because I got turned down based on that alone.

Why move to Australia, leaving a job in the UK only to give yourself the enormous pressure of finding work? Even the casual work is scarce. My comment on looking out for a more positive thread on BE could have been written better. Keep in touch with friends over here, check out the news, job sites, large companies websites such as IBM, CBA etc to see if they are recruiting regularly. Just do some research on it.

LouiseR

Just as we're doing! We're coming over in March and will be staying in North Brisbane (looking to settle in the South) we're bringing about $30k (at todays exchange rate) and we'll have all our furniture etc so hopefully won't have to buy too much straight off the bat.

We plan on trying to keep as much as poss in the bank, never know when you want to head back to the UK do you?

All in all I have a positive attitude, I believe we will do well and I hope to God we do.

chasmw

I emailed a couple of recruitment agencies in WA yesterday and asked for their honest opinion on what the market was like. Their responses were both sombre reading and echo the comments reflected in this thread.

One slightly positive thing however was the traditional aspect to jobs at this time of year. They confirmed that the hiring market dies down between mid to late November and the end of January and hopefully it will pick up later.

There also appears to be a bit of a contradiction with government funded work at the moment. They're commenting that government budgets are being slashed and this is having an impact on work; however due to the fact that governments have a "use it or loose it" policy, they forecast that work will increase. I assume this is towards the end of the financial year - is it April like many places?

LouiseR

End of June in Australia

viviennef

We were effectively ordered on holiday over Christmas to save money amid dire warnings of job losses. We already have teams understaffed, including my own, but we won't be filling any positions in the near future and any contractors still left working for us are now on very, very thin ice

Doesn't sound good - I am not looking for work at the moment , but based my assumptions on how many calls I have had. More than I usually get. Also I work under an ABN for small businesses and I have more work than I can do and so have gone in with another company so they can take up the slack (that said if you see how many children I have, I dont have much time )

I am sure that Australia will, like the rest of the world, suffer from the economic downturn. I just dont think it will be as bad as for the UK. and even in the UK, its all a cycle - the recession in 89 was kind of ok, and you just have to get through it and get by as best you can. Hard when there is no right to social payments, not sure what you do then, go home I guess.

Also you just pick up what work you can do - just get anything, enjoy the sun and then move forward.

BB - have you joined any of the womens network groups on the coast - the coast is great like that, its very much a community. I havent been but met heaps of people who have and once you know some people everyone really does tickle each others back and help each other out. When I came I contacted every single firm in my line of work, not just looking for a job but offering relief cover shoudl they have someone off sick etc.

I got an ABN, got a nice email together, called each firm got the right contact details, told them about myself, then followed it up with an email and dropped a business card off (one click business cards do 1000 for $76). Some people weren't interested but I got one job then another etc. I still get calls from that and when work comes up through another channel I find I already know people.

I am sure that there are similar groups for men, or join a sporting team etc.

Viv

philnorris

Well what confirmed it for me was the announcement my company was getting rid of approx 8,000 contractors. As both me and my partner work for the same company as contractors, with the thought looming we could be finished at any time, and also NO work about in the UK. We figured may as well do it in OZ. We have enough cash to last us quite a long time so arent worried about it too much.

Just got to give it a go and see what happens.

alandnic

RCoight

The news, though grim, is not entirely negative:

Yahoo News story