hi everyone, just a quick one, just wondering what employment for joiners is like around calgery. me and family are looking at airdrie, seems to have everything we would need. my wife is a nurse so we think she she should be ok but i on the other hand dont want to take a big pay cut as am self employed and dont know if i could do that in canada.

cheers for any advice

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measure twice cut once

There is a shortage of trades people in Calgary so you should be good to get a job. I have two friends one was similar to you, already self employed. He went to the local building site and got a job the same day, but it was a pay cut so his wife went to work. Since then he has had pay rises and is not earning good money and wife is not working but having a baby

The second guy was actually a master boatbuilder or something. Set up self employed fitting kitchens. He is a contractor for all the major stores Home depot, rona etc who pay him to fit the kitchens for people. They charge the customer a percentage more for the service. When I wanted him to do my kitchen I had to book him 6 months in advance in order to get him when I wanted him ( and this is friend to friend) so you can imagine how busy he is.

Hope this helps, if you want more info pm me and I will get their details for you.

Hi

I am a mental health nurse & my other half is a joiner. I have a job I am going to in Calgary Health, I have been qualified 7 years and on the Canadian pay structure my basic salary will be about £8500 a year more (in UK I am around top of band 6 for comparison for your wife). Canadians pay structure is based on years experience 1-9 rather than the bands we have in the UK. I have a contact in Calgary Health who's job it is to help employ international nurses and make their immigration process easier, if your wife wants she can PM (private message) me and I will give her the e-mail address.

When we were over in the summer Al could have walked into a building site job, but he would rather set up his own business. From the very basic research we did, just asking people we came into contact with, there is a huge shortage of joiners that do home improvements etc. We was told of joiners just walking out of jobs to go to other ones (paying more) and people not being able to get work completed as there is no-one else around, in fact several people told him to contact them when we moved over as they had work they needed doing.

We are going soon so watch this space

Sharon
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