MNandMN

I am wondering if those of you who are wishing to return to the UK in the next year are aware of all the promised cuts in the UK and the inevitable unemployment that will follow. I don't want to be the voice of doom, but getting a job over the next (at least a) year will be very very difficult, in my view. The public sector is experiencing massive cuts in police, NHS jobs (most only open to current NHS employees where we live), councils (massive cuts), social services etc etc. Their budgets are being sliced severely. This will have a knock on effect for the private sector, as public sector workers try to get work in the private sector when they lose their jobs.

I don't know how much UK news people in Canada, USA, Australia etc can read, but it truly is a scary situation here if you have no job. I think it will be worse than when the recession first started and only the private sector seemed to be affected.

Please don't be put off by this, but just a heads up, in case you are thinking of coming home and think you will easily find a job (I hope you will be able to though)

MN

clairemoir

well I say come home! I work as a recruiter in devon and I am crying out for good candidates to fill a wide variety of positions! From production managers to sales administrators and sales execs!

geeandtee

Where?

I've been looking and I'm scared to death. Can't find much at all!

Mummy in the foothills

Oh that sounds great, I've never been to Devon but it looks lovely on Telly

Mummy in the foothills

If you go here and type in the name of the town you want to be in and the word jobs, then the next page it goes to, in small letters below the search line it'll say searches now available All jobs in (whatever place you picked) click that you'll have pages of jobs to look at.

MNandMN

I don't think Devon is representative of most of the rest of the country if you are crying out for good candidates. It is an expensive place to buy a house if you want something nice and a long way away if you are coming home to be close to relatives and they don't live in the south west. Also, I am not talking about this moment, I am talking over the next year, I don't think things have started rolling yet as far as public sector job cuts.

geeandtee

Thank you, great link.

The anticipated public sector job cuts are reflected now, by the fact that most public sector jobs are being advertised with fixed term contracts.

Stormer999

Yes try to sell that to the mortgage loaner......

sallysimmons

I have my own business and have clients in both the UK and the US, so the job situation doesn't affect my decision about moving, but I really feel for those who are struggling.

This intense focus on cutting govt. spending right at the time when we need it the most scares me. I know some economists here think the UK's cuts are going to put a drag on the global economy just as it was showing a few signs of life.

That said, I don't think people should make decisions about where to live based on doom and gloom predictions. Things are tough in most places and at least in the UK when you lose your job you still have health care. (well, for now at least!)

janeyk

we moved back to the UK in Jan 2010 my whole career has been in public sector we located where we previously lived in SW I searched for 6 months for a role widening my field to anything in below Birmingham every job i went for already had a name on the post namely an internal candiadte and the interview was just a formaility. The level of people searching for the roles makes it very competitive and because I had been out of the cou ntry 18 months i did not have the up to date knowledge etc etc, I did reduce my expectations of salary, position etc with no avail needless to say I have now left the UK for employment I would severly recommend you find employment before your return even if this means coming over for interviews etc as UK firms are not keen on Skype or teleconferencing!

dunroving

Just from my experience of academia, we have lost a stack of people through early retirement and voluntary redundancy, and they won't be replaced. The campus I am on is down to almost 50% of the staff numbers it had just 12-24 months ago. The university hierarchy saw the economic writing on the wall a couple of years ago and are now harking on about working more efficiently, economies of scale, etc., but it boils down to fewer people doing the same workload with fewer resources than just 2-3 years ago.

I think we will feel the pain over the next 12 months, job-wise, when what is currently "talk" becomes reality of job cuts.

Having said all that, if you are very good and very persistent, and willing to be flexible/compromise, there are jobs to be had. The lackadaisical work ethic in many industries means that some employers will snatch up applicants who clearly want to work hard, be reliable, etc.

Stormer999

What jobs are becoming available are min wage i.e £5.93/hr as employers know they will fill the posts at that rate. It is also amazing at some of the higher spec posts falling under the same category as employers know they have recently qualified Uni graduates desperate to gain work experience at any price. In the city desperate areas unscrupulous employers know they do not even have to offer the min wage....

dontheturner

Oh Dear! Oh Dear! I hate to be political, but I think all this happened when the Tories gained power the last time! - Miners all lost their jobs , Steel works all closed down. Good Old Maggie! - Don't worry - everyone says this government alliance will not last a year!

sallysimmons

My brother who lives in the north of England was unemployed for a few months after his company moved his work to India, but he has now found another job with better pay.

Someone posted in another thread about his move home and he found a job right away. It's not all minimum wage jobs and doom and gloom. But in my experience, the one sure way to make things turn out badly is to expect the worst.

Man, when I go home, I know that my hardest struggle is going to be keeping my positive outlook while surrounded by my countrymen

dunroving

Why does the current situation get blamed on the Con-Dems (what a name!) and the past Conservative government? The Democrats in the States are getting the blame, too. The economy didn't get screwed up the day after the election ... it's been a disaster in the making for a lot more years than that. You can't pay millions of public sector workers from a budget pot that's been over-spent for the last 10 years.

You can talk fancy macroeconomics all you want, but some principles are pretty basic. At some point, you have to stop spending more money than you are generating ... so what's it to be? NHS? Roads? Jobs? Welfare benefits? ("None of the above" is not a mathematically feasible answer).