Re: Minimum wage
 

Citizenship is more a focus of the Dems, and I have never heard of any promotion of strict sanctions. Which as has been said would not happen anyway.

Re: Minimum wage
 

Millions Of Over-Qualified Workers To Be Left Without Jobs In Unemployment 'Twilight Zone'

Millions Of Over-Qualified Workers To Be Left Without Jobs In Unemployment 'Twilight Zone'

Re: Minimum wage
 

When I read that article, I thought the following must be wrong.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "As part of our long-term economic plan, we have record numbers of people in work, with the majority of the rise in employment being full-time, permanent positions.

The reason I suspected that it was wrong was that the US passed it's old gdp in constant prices from it's high of 2007 in 2011 and is currently about $1 trillion higher than 2007 but only recently passed it's 2007 employment high. I knew that the UK still has not reached it's old gdp in constant prices of 2008 so I thought that the UK couldn't possibly be employing more people than 2008. However after checking the charts, it appears that the UK has added about 500,000 jobs from it's 2008 high.

United Kingdom Employed Persons | Actual Data | Forecasts | Calendar

However both of those are correct but the problem is that productivity fell by about 5% since 2008. So currently there are more workers in the UK producing less goods than 2008 based on value. I suppose in some ways that is good since less people will be dependent on government benefits.

Re: Minimum wage
 

Looking at possible programs to take at some of the colleges, the one's that seem to offer the best return and wage from the start all involve working for a government entity of some sort, seems to be where the good wages are...

Re: Minimum wage
 

You wonder how long that can continue.

Re: Minimum wage
 

Personally I don't think everyone should go to college. I think you have to judge yourself and if you make a mistake, you'll have student debt hanging over you for a long time.

Have you considered going to a technical school such as a plumber, carpenter, electrician, tile layer, or all the above? Although you may also have a problem finding a job in that field but with that education, you can always work for yourself as a handyman specializing in specific services. In the bay area, a reasonable priced handyman charges about $400 for an 8 hour day if you book him for the week or about $75-$100 per hour for short term work. That could be more than $100,000 per year if employed full time year round. Even if you only find work 50% of the time, you'll be making about $50,000 per year.

I suspect that you could probably get trained in all the above in less than a year.

In BC you may not be able to charge that much but it should still be a decent living. Of course when you first start your business, probably expect only about 1/4th the amount until you build up your reputation.

I have a nephew in Minneapolis that does only tile laying and he was doing pretty well prior to the recession but when the recession hit, jobs stopped. He's now doing well again but in late 2010 he learned to advertise on the internet and that created interest to get out of the slump.

Actually Yelp helps but you have to know how to play Yelp. Yelp seems to post mostly reviews for businesses that use Yelp's services so to get the reviews posted, you need to use Yelp services (eg. coupons that Yelp sells for a profit such as $40 per hour for 8 hours work or 20% off on labor and you pay Yelp $10-$20 for each coupon sold). Yelp claims they have a program limits reviews based on a specific criteria but when I tried to post bad reviews for businesses that had a lot of good reviews and good reviews for businesses that had very few reviews, none of them posted. After investigating Yelp, the businesses with a lot of good reviews were advertising with Yelp and the one's with few reviews were not. Personally I'd stay away from "Angie's List" since from reports I've read, it sucks businesses dry with a lot of charges.

Re: Minimum wage
 

I've thought about trades, there are some training programs for them. Just not sure how well I would do as I have never been real good at fixing things, although I could probably do plumbing okay, when I kept aquariums, I had to plumb those and create systems myself, and never flooded the place...lol

I am looking at one short term course in particular, its only 6 months and is well within my abilities, and is in demand and postings all over with every health authority in the area, pay isn't super high, but good enough for me. 18 to 20/hr to start.

Its community mental health worker, with the direction mental health care is going here, there will likely be more demand for these as well due to the community based approach of the mental health system now being used so facilities are all over the place and not just at a hospital with nurses like before, and its too much $$$ for the health authorities to use nurses when a nurse isn't needed, so new position was created that is cheaper.

I am not looking at any academic programs, everything is very specific in training, some are certificates, a couple are degrees.

But now I think I am going to look into plumbing as well.

Got about a year before I can consider going back to school/training, so I am not rushing.

Re: Minimum wage
 

Unfortunately you probably don't own your home so you can't do projects in your home. However if you got friends that need small jobs for tile work, crown molding, new baseboards, plumbing, hardwood flooring, etc., Home Depot and Lowe's have free classes on the weekends. Then if your friends will let you practice during the weekends or during vacation on their home, you may find you can do pretty decent job.

You'd probably need about $1,000 worth of power tools to do the above projects. If you specialize in only one thing, you probably only need to spend about 1/4 that amount.

Re: Minimum wage
 

From what I can gather about you from your posts, I think the community worker job will suit you better. It sounds interesting actually.

Re: Minimum wage
 

Worked for Obama.

Re: Minimum wage
 

That's community organizer and not community health worker.:huh:

Re: Minimum wage
 

Close

Re: Minimum wage
 

I'm not so sure. In the US, those low level health service jobs are very low paying. I'd make sure that what is being advertised is for someone without experience.

In the US it's also a growing industry but a lot of it is in nursing homes and other low paying positions. Someone that takes your blood pressure and weight has worked their way up after doing the crap jobs.

Re: Minimum wage
 

In Kenya :rolleyes:

Unbelievable.
Yeah I guess but maybe steadier work.

Re: Minimum wage
 

The lowest range is 18/hr. I made sure to check the union website to check out the pay scale.

Luckily wage wise most healthcare workers work for a health authority, and the province negotiates the wages with the work groups.

There are some private entities providing some health support workers, but they cater to home care mostly.

Upside to having government funded healthcare, wages haven't been depleted in the lower level support workers categories, and nowhere near the level seen in the US.

My mom did home healthcare in California after she could no longer be a paramedic after cancer, and she made 8 to 9 per hour, she eventually left and went into a hotel since it paid more.

Support workers don't make super wages, but for the training needed the pay is good. 18 is the lowest starting, top off is mid 20's, 23 ish if I recall correctly. Per hour wages.

I thought about psychiatric nursing as well (different then registered nursing) as its one of the few health programs not requiring high levels of math as their pay is quite nice 30 to 43 per hour, but I am thinking for me, short term might be better for training, and then decide later on if I want to move up into more training.

We are one of the few places in North America where psychiatric nursing is its own specialty and license, and totally different training then a RN would get.