colin2496

I am an electrician married to USC, we are not sure if we would be better off if we moved back to the USA? Can anyone offer advice on this, we would be looking to move to the PA, MD or VA area. I'm not sure of the work prospects at the moment in the USA.
As we know both economies are suffering a downturn but a just feel the usa will weather better than the uk?

Any advice welcome

Colin

Rete

Since I don't know where you are living now and the type of lifestyle you are living, no way to tell you if you would be better off here or there.

Your being an electrician might not be a good thing if you don't have a US license to work your trade or if you move to a union state, if you can't join the union.

Work in the US at the moment is not too good. Lots of layoffs. New building slowing down if not stopped altogether. An ever weakening economy. Read the papers and talk to your wife's friends and family.

Elvira

Healthcare costs...

penguinsix

There are a lot of variables. I think a few others on here are electricians and can speak to the licensing and testing that might be required.

Overall, new housing starts, a statistic compiled by the government to show new construction, has reached a 20 year low. This, of course, doesn't bode well for the work load for most electricians. Some areas will weather the economic slowdown better than others (and in fact, the DC 'inside the beltway' area is still showing an annual increase in average property values while most of the rest of the country is suffering hard).

I think it also depends a bit on what your goal is. Are you looking to work for some other contractor or big company, or are you hoping to go independent, eventually hiring a few others to work for you and start your own business?

In a general sense, moving overseas is expensive. Since it doesn't appear you are going to be getting a relocation package, you're going to be on your own to transport your personal goods and / or to re-equip a house in the USA when you arrive. These costs add up, even for people who have someone else paying for the shipping container (i.e. you need more hangers, or the hair dryer broke and has to be replaced, or you didn't pack placemats). Believe it or not this all adds up.

Anyway, try to look in some sites like the washingtonpost.com (search their very good job section for DC/MD/VA jobs) and see what the pay scale is for someone with your skills. Look over at realtor.com for some idea on house prices, and just try to put some numbers behind your decision making process.

Good luck.

another bloody yank

I know a few residential (Union) electricians that aren't working very much right now....

Ash UK/US

Going off the basic information you have given I personally would wait (think, from the frying pan into the fire) neither country are doing great. Employment is unstable here not to mention the cost of relocating, getting a license, actually finding a job and the cost of healthcare.

Bob

What does the missus do?

It might take you a bloody long time to work over here, depending on the state, but it can take a few years to get licensed and be rather expensive doing it.

Elvira

How many weeks vacation does an electrician typically get.......... anybody know?

Bob

If they are contractors? As many as unemployment time ends up being

Otherwise, pretty shit, but then around here if you ain't a licensed contractor, your probably a Brazilian being paid peanuts for dodgy work and no bennies...

penguinsix

Yea, and those that are working are finding they're going up against each other for the jobs. About a mile from here there is a new residential neighborhood which has been 'plotted' for 225 homes. They've only built 40, and the 40 that were built the developer had the contractors bidding against one another in lean and mean times. I asked my contractor why he didn't bid and he was like 'I'd have to drive a Prius to save on gas and not loose a single tool otherwise the profit margin would be shot'.

This is just a random aside and maybe some of the electricians can speak better on this, but 'low voltage' wiring guys, i.e. the guys we have run coax cable for TV and more importantly, ethernet CAT-5 cables in offices and whatnot always seem to be in more demand, especially if you can study up and get some basic networking skills. I don't know if being a networking cable guy pays better than being an electrician (probably not because the former are not usually union) but there seems to always be some demand for networking folks, at least in cities that have a pretty strong tech community.

another bloody yank

St. Louis is a pretty strong union town so I don't know if this applies elsewhere, but most of those guys (data/voice/AV) are all in the electricians union here.

Here's a link to the site of the STL area Local http://www.ibewlocal1.org/ Check out the "Do not patronize" list under "News and Views"!

Jess5377

electricians in the US are not paid very well. PERIOD. Of course, I don't know where you are now, but you would be better off in London. Dh and I made the move as he wanted to try life in the US (he is fully qualified in the UK) and learned the hard way those quals don't mean a thing in the US and the pay is peanuts. If you move to a state where the union is big, good luck getting a job at all. They will make it very hard for you. My dh got a job quite easily as he had an in with the owner of the largest electrical co where we live and he was offered a pretty decent wage to start as a sparks, but everything is different here- the terminology and the way things are done. Most of what my dh has had to do he says would be illegal in the UK. In London he earned in a wk what he earns in a month. Needless to say, we're heading back next wk. Even the foreman here earned 1/4 of what he made last yr in the UK.