pathfinder

Come on PDMS is a job for the boys, its like fight club if you know someone your in, if not walk on. Now if companies took a few risks and hired people with a good rep not related to the industry maybe that rate would not be £50. Hardly representative of the market, London rates are £16-20. Certainly Engineering firms are to blame not taking up the slack. In the good times firms should have cross trained Technicians. As for CAD monkeys, those days are long gone. Hell half the time the job spec for Technicians are actually requiring Engineer skills.

This is not a steady decline of CAD technicians that was the draughtsman they replaced them. What is happening is a massive drop in winnable work due to a deadly mix of public sector cut backs (road projects did get a big cut back) like filling pot holes while the whole road actually needs repairs. and private sector developments (banks not willing to lend). When you see Directors begging other Directors to give their department some work in the corridor you know the game is over for 5+ years simply due to the time it takes to get a feasibly project going down to some design. So the CAD techies get kicked out first I have seen 14 year fulltimers get dumped in 2008. 1 year later yep they close the whole department. As we have seen with Atkins cut the techies, demand longer work hours the same pay, then make 1300 redundant. Potential work is vanishing leaving the firms with a large longterm building rental contract and a nice big business rate bill. Your CAD mate is screwed if he is laid off, he needs to be debt free and ready for the dole or a career change with 5000 other people chasing it sadly.

One of the one of the more interesting side effects of falling rates of pay for low paid works is that part time work is a fools game. My friend was made redundant (£9 hr) only to be rehired a year later doing the same job for £6hr. The other day it dawned on him that he could go on the dole intermittently have some time off. Certainly in my workplace the cost of running the place is keen but in balance it is a real headache for management constantly running job fairs, trying to motivate the workers from either wasting time, arguing, or simply not turning up for work. Over the year I have seen a marked difference in peoples attitude to work, once people stop having money left over for gadgets and treats, the desire to work drops off fast.

Care homes/Supported living actually pays £6-8hr (Support Worker), but it is possibly the hardest physically/mentally taxing job I have ever done. I got this job with no skill set in the sector, they still struggle to find people. My retired mate does not get it still however, keeps asking me why the hell im taking £6 when you can be an odd job man for £10 no tax.

We got lucky in addition to my paranoia about work (Which actually turned out to be realistic ... damn). 145k flat (late 1960s) 13k deposit 6.5% Full repayment 6 years later with over payments. 75k left 400 a month payment. CAD tech work turned into a nightmare from 1 month out of work in the good times to 2 years 1 interview, wife lost her job. Switched to a low wage 11k job Wife on JSA. Life would have been grim but thankfully we have alot of fun hobbies that are cheap. Finally she bagged a job with a stupid commute, I am giving up the low paid job to setup some passive internet income in case we both are out of work, the old job is currently left open for 3 months. Our emergency fund is still intact untouched. The thing is 6 years on if that money had not been put into the mortgage I don't think I could buy a place even with a 20% drop. I would perceive the risk of both of us being out of work far too high. Let alone the fact the building society would not like to take a punt on a 11k income.

I gave up the package holidays 4 years ago. The mix of cycling to get there and back starts and ends the holiday with relief and a sense of achievement although there are pub stops and nosh on route (through country lanes). A good dinner that you appreciate because your famished, then dance and drink the night away, wife giggling like a school girl. Your decline is my heaven. Better than that second week on a Greek island when you have seen everything, you have said everything you can say over a candle lit dinner, and on the last day you decide to have an early dip in the sea to find a Greek local holding their sprog above the water while it pees low. Actually that made me laugh, never did have that last swim.

I have quite a few holidays in th UK coming up. Things are cheap if you can get fit enough to handle a 70 mile cycle (or where ever you go too) to get to a camping music festival at a pub/venue. Then learn how to dance balswing thats me up till 3-5am. Then you'll be sorted! I have quite a few weekender's where its a mix of beer festival and live music £10 to get in. Hats off to the pubs putting on 5 days of music for £40 quid 25 live bands, good beer and fresh pasta. We should be going to Towersey folk festival hopefully for a week. UK all the way for me! Although there is talk of France next year if my mates girlfriend can just handle a 60 mile tandem bike ride.

It is very interesting taking a look at this from another angle. I work for 6.58 (just got a 21p pay rise go me ), In the past 2 months around 12 of the 20 staff are all complaining there is not enough cash left over to warrant the life altering shifts directly due to inflation/taxes (its possible to do 10-11 shifts no day off). Were talking people that rent, cook food from scratch. like drinking at home. The numbers are starting to not add up. 8 are considering jacking it in going on JSA allowance so their partner can claim tax credits, or part time 2 days a week and claiming JSA. So a byproduct of this inflation could well be the NMW previously morally obliged to work (in their heads) giving up and take benefits. The low paid worker would rather regain freetime if drink and a bit of spare cash is lost due to inflation/tax. This would put themselves into a position where they have even less money to spend. I have to say it felt like ground hog day, had this same conversation 10-12 times with different people.

Some jobs have been coming up finally under 1 hr commute, 25k year. Sadly the train ticket is £157. Well into one months flat rental or after travel, working for under £7 hour. The dole is starting to look good even for those on an average salary.

I am going to check my bank account later.

I gave up on travelling abroad, certainly main holidays about 6 years ago. We go for mini festivals, pub festivals with camping or hotels running 3 bands a night with a dance floor. 30 -70 mile cycle through the country side, shed loads of cash for beer and pub food, and dancing with my mates till 4 in the morning. Nothing better and all you give up is £10 each for day festivals or £30 camping for 3 days. The hotel ones are £180 full English, 3 course meal and then 3 bands for 3 nights.

Im on £6.37 hour not near 40 so I do know what I am talking about, mortgage half paid off no kids but supporting wife who lost her job, not touched savings. If I can do it a 45 year old with children would walk it, sorry quite doable. So again the older population are happy to take the low paid work. Plenty first time support workers moving from an office environment into care work.

But the 45 year old is pleased at least the young are not going for the low paid work, he has paid a good chunk of his mortgage off and can live off a low salary. Refusing to work will only have an effect if no other part of the workforce wants the work .... but they do, quite badly. I see a lot of 45-55 year old women trying to top up the number of years worked to gain the full state pension. Peoples pension pots raided so they have to work longer, let alone MEWing and debt. Having the young out of work is what the system is geared to, all they get is training which does not mean a thing when going against 15 years experience worker willing to take a 30% pay cut to stay in the game.

If the young want to send a message stop going to nightclubs, drop £40 phone contracts, stop buying games for £49. Then give up sky, BBC, and shopping for junk. Take up cycling, partner dancing to blues, bluegrass, or what ever music your into. Go to cheap acoustic or small festivals rather than the main ones loads have £10-15 entry rather than plastic bands for £40 a day. Have 2 or 3 bevys be it at the pub or before you go out and enjoy being tipsy rather than vomiting everywhere. As for giving up work that is insane. No work experience is the reason why they can not break into the work place in the first place and gain a career, hell if you do not match the exact job spec you have no hope as it is. And currently as far as I can see from 16 to retiree, almost everyone is looking for a job, so your one and only choice is to... not to work. If there was a country that requires your skill set go, come back in 3-5 years with real work experience and charge a premium, or stay here and get paid to wipe ass while the government tax your low paid ass for £150 a month .

The thing is part time is totally skewed when you have tax credits and JSA manipulating near the NMW pay packet. aged under 24, you get no tax credits aged 16+ Make a baby work 16 hours a week, heres whatever they get for 16 hours. aged 25+ 16 hours a week, you get nothing aged 25+ 30 hours a week, heres +45 quid a week Your talking 1 1/2 days free money tax free a week while working a 30 hour week. most people would rather a temporary full time job over a part time job.

Population of town 140k Number of jobs posted at the job centre since the 1st Jan .... 15 within a 15 mile radius. What could possibly go wrong.

I can believe the second rung on the ladder has collapsed. If you splashed out on a flat £165k, sat on it for 5-6 years. Then discover fkme the next step is to borrow 130k more just to get a garden and the neighbor off the roof. It really makes you stop and think. Pension or a 10 square meters of earth + a larger council tax bill hmmmmm. Choices choices.

Once you have tried out one of these jobs you soon see how useless it is trying to make a living with a peasant salary. Its £35 a day, you can see why people do 14 hour part time then grab JSA work 2 days get paid 4 (and your free to barter things with all that free time). You know things are going to the dogs when after working all day on a 7 hour shift you have earned the equivalent of 35 vegetables. Wife is no longer being asked by JSC to look at the job computers as they have no jobs requiring no experience.

lol at this rate the Times will become a leaflet. I wonder if we will see some newspapers go pop soon, some relied heavily on VI once in a lifetime house investment opportunity (suckers) ads.

I would say Declining Productivity increases living standards, depending on your outlook. We were both working at okay jobs 2007. Since wife is unemployed and I had to take a NMW almost...... (I will be dropping my hours to part time in March). Now were are technically less productive however we have an allotment, like going dancing, taking the tandem out in the week.... Life really is what you make it. My 'Standard of Living' from the viewpoint of happiness, health, and quality time has gone up! Buying sh*t is non-existent (except for manure but that's free for the most part).

To be fair to the guy few mortgages taken up by couples are feasible when removing 1 worker, which is why we are heading for a s***storm.

As a Support Worker I see huge imbalances between British workers and workers from abroad perhaps even higher than the 2 to 3 ratio. But here is the thing, once your here you have to work hard to pay bills etc. But if you have family in the UK you have a support network, your showered with cash for having a child, heck you only have to work 16 hours and they give you working tax credits. The jobs out there atm that are low paid are pretty hard physical / mental jobs, disjointed hours, dire overtime rates, phone calls on your day off to cover a shift, no annual leave between 24th Dec to 7 Jan, plus may not even pay for sick days. But chin up you do get £24-29 a day. This is why a greater number of foreign workers are taking a good chunk of the jobs.

I am still doing my 6.37 hr job. Switching over to Part time by choice, my 28 x 5m Allotment turned up this year. Applying basic Java skills into some applets to help me work out how much produce the allotment potentially will create. No one wants a freezer full of broad beans :/. Plus chewing over starting dance classes. Perhaps I should go all shameless and drop my hours below JSA threshold ...

Spend £89 million on a product that has a chance of saving 200 lives, plus you get a nice dosage of mercury. Sign me up.

It was +1% previously, not really news.