What is the state of the construction industry at this present time?
Are signs of recovery emerging?
Im very interested in coming over but want to know what is happening work wise.
Grateful of any response

Cheers

Where? It's a big country.

What type of construction and where abouts Dave ?

shopfitting/high class interior fitting preferably but I can 1st/2nd fix suspended ceilings a good all round chippy really. where is their a lot of work happening

And my OH is a painter/decorator with supervisory experience looking for work in Vancouver or Calgary...... anyone know what that market is like at the moment?

SG

Improving in the Vancouver area.

I work with quite a lot of subs and small general contractors. Sales and profits in 2009 are 50% to 60% down on 2008 and as you can imagine many contractors let go all but their core people. That said, a few have picked up some nice contracts recently and are starting to hire again. The general feeling is that we have turned the corner.

Employment will not be back to 2007 levels when a pulse was the only qualification needed to get work. There is still a pool of people looking for jobs but probably by the summer things should be more stable with some opportunities for skilled, qualified and experienced people.

Other clients in Whistler and the interior (Shuswap area) have been going great guns all through 2007-2009.

i always look on this site -- http://www.sajobline.com/view_job.php?sb_id=726459
especially for alberta, but i have noticed more and more that employers are putting signs up around town for employment and generally word of mouth or a friend/friend.......
When we came over we emailed companys then met them face to face on a recci trip, they love that more here, plus depends if you are heading to the larger citys or smaller ones

calgary is as ever going great guns for the oil and mining.... but snazzy high rise etc.... toronto seems to be where its at.

i think vancouver is going slo-mo in new builds as once the olympics are done, the BC gov will have a vast swathe of housing to off load. but the new year should have a heap of federal jobs in the offing.

Thanks everyone.....

Sounds like things are turning slowly..... I think we'd be looking at next end spring/summer anyway as we both want to complete qulaifications and get everything in place. We will spend the next few months emailing companies and agencies and will arrange some appointments for next spring.

Are there any construction employment agencies which specialise in this kind of area? or is there a list of contractors/large construction companies in Vancouver?

SG

Im an Electrician here in the uk but in canada im an Electrician apprentice due to lack of experiance and i also need a job when im over there for my visa, but atm i cant get a job as apprentice because of the recession so im now having to wait until Vancouver recovers, looking at the figures they should be out of the recession by the end of march.

You obviously haven't seen downtown Calgary recently.

There's quite a few small specialist furniture companys in Muskoka, northern Ontario. There was a job advertised for this couple of months ago. Take a look on canjobs BUT most jobs are secured by word of mouth & networking in Canada.

indeed i have not.... but i did see Downtown TOR and it was a forest of tower cranes....

meanwhile all construction job ads in AB seem to be oil and mining related...... but if CAL is getting snazzy too..... well then that is great!

Decorating is quite different in Canada. The paints are different so the application is different. Plus I found that the quality expectations are far higher.
I can't send PMs yet but if you want to send me a PM with an email address, I'll give you a few contacts to try. But remember Vancouver is very small so the choice is limited.