Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

Hi,
I am really interested to find out if everyone in trades is really struggling to find work. We have been in Australia since October(me, OH and two children) first Melbourne to stay with Family and then flew to the Gold Coast in December. My OH is an Installation Electrician, he has over 20 years experience, he has his licence, blue card and CPR to start work and he is applying for all the jobs he can but he is having just no luck at all. He has signed up with all the agencies and still no luck. He is applying to jobs Brisbane north and south side and gold coast areas. I am starting to get a little worried now that we might just have to go back to England, as we have had no income coming in now since October and we will not be able to survive much longer.

Just wanted to know what the situation was for others.
Many thanks Nicola

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

That really does suck Nicola and I really feel for you. Things are not good at the moment, I am a brickie working in sydney and things are slowing down very fast. The only suggestion I can give is get the business white pages and get Hubby to call companies direct, when they need somebody you may just find yourselves in the right place at the right time, I did this when I first came out here and got a job on my second call! Alternatively find where some of the big sites are and find out which electrical contractors are working the sites, often companies even when things are bad will hire someone because of the contract deadlines they need to meet; it may not be long term employment but it will be a start. Good luck. Chris

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

I am not sure what an installation electrician is but I would also try calling some of the signage companies. They often need an electrician on staff if he was happy to work outside of his trade aswell - putting up signage etc

Vivienne

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

Has he tried some knocking on doors? sometimes pays dividends

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

Thanks for the good luck, but i forgot to say that he has driven around most of the site around here and nothing going, i think he will start ringing companies out of the A-Z like you said and hope it works like it did for you.
Thanks Nicola

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

posted a similar thread to this not long ago but was more general jobs, not just tradies and altho' its no comfort it seems to be same all over Australia in all occupations. We are lucky coz i am working full time so just managing but OH has had no luck since we landed in Oct. He's a QS but started life as carpenter but can't get work in either. I reckon all we can do is keep plugging away but some days its hard to keep cheerful. Wishing you all best of luck!:)

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

It is a crappy time of year to seek work.
Christmas hols are only just over, so look on seek.com and josearch.gov.au amongst others for jobs in trades and services.

Often the best way seems to be personal recommendation or contacts. So perhaps take up any casual work (via agencies) and your H may find some good contacts or perhaps some job offers might appear.

Best of luck.

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

If you ever think of relocating to Melbourne I may be able to help with contacts.It's a case of who you know for your first job,once your up and running you can move around.
Best of luck

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

Hi Nicola,

Really sorry to hear that your hubby is out of work and i am trying to get out there as a spark also ! So i am always keeping an eye out regarding work etc etc

I have just looked on SEEK HERE
And they seem to have a few going in your area but are they just like the agencies here then? that just want to get you on there books registered ?

Hope you get some luck soon

Regards

Dougie

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

I think tradesmen in general would get a lot more work if they ever bothered to return phone calls or emails, or ever actually responded to requests for quotations.

Clearly there is more than enough work in Melbourne as tradesmen just don't seem very interested in new jobs.

Buzzy

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

We have been on the sunshine coast since August, OH is a plumber and we have been applying Brisbane n&s , sunny coast and goldie....No Luck! There really isn't ANYTHING, and if there is the chances are it will go to an aussie with Aussie experience, just bad timing on our behalf:unsure: We too may have to go home, our lease is up in March, we are not sure that we will be renewing.

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

Hi,
I'm new to this and found it looking for imformation on getting my full license as an electrician, then noticed this thread on work availability.
We've been on the Sunshine Coast since Xmas and without fail the people we've met all say you won't have any trouble getting work. Wrong!
I've applied for nearly 30 jobs thro' every method you can think of i've had 2 job interviews after sending off countless CVs. Don't get me wrong, we arrived at the wrong time right on the holiday period, but (a) I think it is tough when you're waiting on doing a regs course (compulsary) to get a full license, up to 6 months in Queensland and (b) So many sparks are coming back out the mine.
I've been competing against 15 to 20 every advert i answer from the feedback i've got. If you have no full license it makes it alot harder.
Genrally i've seen a fair ammount of adverts but probably like alot of others i've slowly looked further and further afield for work after drawing blanks.
Alot of people said that we should have gone to Brisbane or The Gold Coast as it better work prospects, but we love the Sunshine Coast and although it's an hour and a quarters drive from here i got a job, not ideally what i wanted but i'm just gonna sit it out for the next year at least. Especially when i hear that many all round Queensland infact Australia are experience difficulties finding work.
Believe me we are very worried but with a bit of luck, we should be ok. Besides going back is not an option for us.
I know everyone has different cicumstances so it's hard comparing what one found easy and another found hard.
I still think Oz has still more to offer in the way of economic growth it's just whether each of us can ride this slump out.
keith

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

Sorry mate but Countries are built by tradesmen, what your talking about is greedy, lazy f**kers who would have done a sh** job for you anyway cos they're not capable of anything else. They'd be like that whatever they did for a living and still seem to well out of doing it.
What you need to do is find a good tradesman (and there are many) and treat them like one!
Keith

Re: Tradesmen Struggling to find work!
 

yeah, brickie laid off at xmas. some of you will have seen what i have posted about chasing work at the moment on other threads. doing courier work at moment to pay bills while i hopefully get my contractors licence. just waiting for some prat in the uk to come on and acuse you all of making it up to stop them coming over and nicking your work!!!!!!!