Janet Rutledge

Well what can I say!! Been living here for fourteen months and in that time OH has had at least 5 jobs!!!! None were permanent and all were supposed to be for a long time until the work dried out. Extremely demoralising finding out that you have a job one day and not the next. In Uk he ran a successful company but did not want to go down that route here but finding it hard to earn decent money and have abit of job security. He is a qualified carpenter and joiner and has his BSA licence yet is still struggling with work!!! Anyone know of jobs which require good reliable carpenters who are skilled in other areas give me a shout?

sr71

There is a worldwide economic crisis going on, I think that may have a lot to do with it. You will just have to sit it out I think for a couple of years. Supposedly not as bad here as the US/UK though.

DownUnderPaddy

Some insights into that question (and some interesting reader comments) in this article, even though its on the GC and not Brisbane :

http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008...s-fears-worst/

e.g.
"Trafford received 50 responses over three days after he placed one advertisement for a carpenter to build a timber deck at a Brisbane house renovation.

In February-March, tradesmen were charging $45 an hour including travel time. Six of those who responded to the ad were willing to work for $30, with the rest quoting $35 an hour."

On the bright side, as the previous poster said, it is not as bad here as other parrts of the world, plus the weather is nicer !

NJJ

Not just construction industry, a few places businesses are struggling at the moment. We had a few people laid off last week where I work.

IvanM

Most construction is financed through lending and mortgage funds. We all know what has happened to the former. The latter has also collapsed with a number of dubious companies ripping off investors. Look up City Pacific, Fincorp and Westpoint Finance.

Miners are scaling back expansion and any well run company is reviewing the viability of projects with the new financial environment we are now in. Projects determine demand for builders and the mining boom has been sucking them out of the cities.

Tableland

Are you kidding me? We're on the brink of a global depression with tens of millions of people unemployed and all governments can think of doing is cutting rates to 0% and following Japan's example, a country in which houses are worth less today than they were in 1990.

emelems

I was a bit suprised by the title too afterall, you can't pick up a newspaper without doom and gloom coming smack bang out at you!

On the upside, can't think of a nicer place than where I live to observe the world going into a melt down

Good luck with it all tho... hope that he gets some decent work.. nothing worse than employement worries

Em x

DownUnderPaddy

And a relevant article for Melbourne from todays paper...

Builders braced for a big collapse
http://business.theage.com.au/busine...1207-6tab.html

Tableland

Great article. OECD says Australia one of few countries in the world that will escape the recession and they actually predict growth for Australia while the rest of the developed world collapses. However, I am not so sure, and I can see no way the Aussies escape from this if everyone else goes down - what about the famous Aussie deficit?

IvanM

Are you talking about the current account, budget or trade deficit as only one is in deficit?

Quarter to Sept GDP growth was 0.1% and trade surplus was a record. With the change in price and volume of commodity exports I doubt the trade surplus will remain as healthy and the drop in royalties is predicted to send the budget into deficit by a billion (Access Economics). Compared to elsewhere that is not too bad but still a sign that the effects are starting to hit.

Tableland

It has one of the worst current account deficits in the world, with only UK, Spain and US doing worse. I accept that on other fronts it is looking stronger though and my own view is that while it gets hammered over the next few years - especially its housing stock which is about to nosedive - it will come out better than the UK, which is going to lose its currency, it's that bad.

Buzzy--Bee

Yeh but hang on a bit. The Japanese house market is like a car market - everyone wants a brand new house. Second hand houses loose 30% of their value the minute they become second hand - just like cars.

It's a different mindset with regard to property there and can't be used as a comparison with a Western housing market.

Buzzy

viviennef

Hi Janet
I notice you are in Brookfield. I live in the Sunshine Coast but stay in Brookfield usually a couple of days a week - my family live there.

So Hi!

My husband works in a carpentry based field but is not a carpenter - there hasnt been any real downturn on our work as yet. Its really busy. Expecting first half next year to slow down but it does every year a bit. I work hard at this time of year building contracts for next.

In the UK its really bad so all my friends say so I think its easier here

Vivienne

IvanM

I have heard the comparision to Japan a few times because a similiar issue happened there in the late eighties. Banks became over geared and built up a large number of non performing loans. There was a large property spike fuelled by the loans. The bubble burst and Japan has been struggling ever since.

Japan is also a major Australian trading partner and Australia is one of the few countries in the world to have a trade surplus with Japan. The major exports to Japan are iron ore, coking coal, coal and other metals with the steel industry the major buyer. That industry fed the Japanese exporting monster which has been hit hard and the flow on to Australia is only just about to be felt. For a measure of what is happening look up what has happened to new car sales.

IvanM

The attractiveness of the Euro to the UK depends on how the Euro fares. The next few years are the test of whether the currency union can handle the national politics generated by a recession. I still do not sense the UK as politically ready for the Euro.