Thread: Out of work again

Originally Posted by Eevo

love to see a baby boomer start again and do it all again starting today.
good luck.

Would not be a problem , there is plenty of work if people had a mindset to get out of the cities and got over the age of entitlement . .

I have been out of work for the last 2.5 years due to a motor accident while at work, I have been left with a ruined left arm/hand and at 63 my chances of gaining meaningful employment now is pretty remote.
This is the first time I have ever been out of work for any length of time and it "SUCKS" so I empathise with those of you who are looking for work.

For the first time in 23 years i am out of work, but by choice, after 10 years i have had enough of running my own business, so am now trying to get back into the work force as an employee, and boy is it hard! Who wants to employ a 43 year old electrician who has worked for himself! Looks like i may just have to start up another business again

Having read through this Thread I can see where this country is heading and it's not pretty. Good luck to those who are out of work and seeking meaningful employment. I have worked in various jobs, including 13 years self employed for a long time now and at the age of almost 72 (in three weeks) I am still working. I pulled the pin on full time work two years ago and I am working partime. Probably give it all away after Christmas. I feel very lucky after reading some of the stories here, that at my age I can still work and again the best of wishes to those here who are seeking work.

ps. Somebody should blow 457 visas up.

I feel for those of you that are out of work and throw in that evil age of 50+ and for some reason seems to put up a further barrier. I wish you well in your search.

I will relay my point of view and I am sure some wont like it , but we have no one but ourselves to blame. When the mining boom was happening and stupid amounts of $$ were getting handed over for skilled and unskilled workers it set a precedence that we still haven't recovered from.

My industry lost most of our workers to the offshore mining boom and deckhands were getting 100K plus a year for working 6 months , we couldn't compete with that so we had to resort to employing people who would go to sea for less , it wasn't that we were underpaying anyone , its just that others were paying far more than what was considered normal. Our engineers went from $2000p/w to being payed $800 a day for working offshore, guess what happened - they left in droves.
So what did we have to do = find people who would go to sea for several months at a time , and who were happy to accept what we paid. Well most of them came from oversea's and yes most of the engineers are 457 visa workers. I was offered more than double the money I was making ,but decided to stay with what I knew , and now most of the guys who left are out of work because oil is worth half of what it was and the offshore work has dropped right off. The guys we employed on 457 visa's are still there working for us , and why should we sack them because the people who left when it wasn't good enough , now want to come back because all of a sudden its good again.

I am not saying this is the case everywhere , but about 5 years ag they started building the latest gas plant in Darwin, same thing happened - ridiculous wages paid during construction , tradies left in droves to work there and what happened - if you were lucky enough to be able to get someone to come to your house to fix something you paid 1.5 to 2 times above what was normal.

We may not want to accept it, but we have become a country that's wants maximum wages for minimum work, and we have to accept a lot of our problems we created.

Ok so let me have it.

Chhers Ean

I may have spoken to soon, might have just got a job!
Now to research standby generators in telstra exchangers etc etc...

Ean, I can see you are a boss that is loyal to your employees and good on you for that. Far too little of it nowadays. In your situation I don't blame you for hiring a 457 worker when you can't get people to fill the position, because they have gone chasing the BIG BUCKS. I think that was the original intention of the 457 visa. However, as we all know there are companies out there who abuse the system.

Originally Posted by Ausfree

Ean, I can see you are a boss that is loyal to your employees and good on you for that. Far too little of it nowadays. In your situation I don't blame you for hiring a 457 worker when you can't get people to fill the position, because they have gone chasing the BIG BUCKS. I think that was the original intention of the 457 visa. However, as we all know there are companies out there who abuse the system.

Thanks, but for me it was simple - last in = first out and I could see that it wasn't sustainable what was being paid, at least with what I do, there is a future that should see out my working life.

1 side of my job is dealing with the 457 visa's and I believe there is a lot of mis-information about being able to get workers for rediculessly low wages some believe is possible. The rules are very strict and we get audited on a regular basis , not to mention having to prove we tried to get local workers. I am not sure what its like in other fields , but honestly I couldn't see it being different.

I think you will find the most exploited are people here on student visa's ( which I deal with a little as I have a couple of very casual staff who are here on these visa's ). They can only work about 20hrs a week , and they could very easily be exploited - ie was it 7/11 or one of those chains.

I am certainly not saying that people are not out there trying, but we need to look at some of the reason's behind the cause and its not always that companies are trying to rob workers and employ non locals. Hell it wasn't all that long ago that the local businesses up here were all going to have to close down because the back packers were going to get taxed.= that's for another thread.

Cheers Ean