Where do all the unskilled workers go........?

[Gobes32]

Just having a thought process lately. With all our manufacturing going offshore lately and much more of it to happen in the future, I was left wondering, where will all the unskilled workers go?

Where I work, in the 60's, 70's and 80's it was well known that if you could not get a job anywhere else in Geelong, it did not matter, they would still hire you. But nowadays, there are no jobs like this anymore.

So it got me thinking, are there any people on here that didn't pass Form 3/4 or what ever it used to be called that ended up scoring a decent paying unskilled job? And what would you do if that job left the country? It would be interesting to hear your replies.........

[MexicanBatman]

Prison

[mr smith]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

Just having a thought process lately. With all our manufacturing going offshore lately and much more of it to happen in the future, I was left wondering, where will all the unskilled workers go?

Where I work, in the 60's, 70's and 80's it was well known that if you could not get a job anywhere else in Geelong, it did not matter, they would still hire you. But nowadays, there are no jobs like this anymore.

So it got me thinking, are there any people on here that didn't pass Form 3/4 or what ever it used to be called that ended up scoring a decent paying unskilled job? And what would you do if that job left the country? It would be interesting to hear your replies.........

This is a great question. I know many unskilled workers who were layed off over the last few years who are really struggling. A lot are not working or doing low hours. A problem is if your married and your wife is working (I think earning over $35K) you will not be entitled to any benifits and will NOT be counted as unemployed. The same if you recieve a payout and cannot find a new job, you will not have any assistance and again not be counted as unemployed. Current unemployment figures are so inacurate they are a joke.

[FTE72]

They just had new inductees into the Senate.....seems pretty unskilled there these days.

[Gobes32]

My partner is in recruitment and she see's this first hand everyday. 48 year olds who were leading hands and cannot get a job at their local Bunnings etc. I am sort of fortunate that even though I may be made redundant in 4 years, I will only be 31 and will receive a redundancy payout that could potentially halve my mortgage. But it also scares me. I passed my VCE with flying colors, I have obtained tickets within my current employment. But once I leave the safety net of my current job, what is out there? And please don't mention mining jobs because anyone that actually works in mining will tell you there is a glut of workers at the moment and more people are being laid off than put on. It would appear that even the miners become unconfident in an unstable government.........

[SEZ213]

Originally Posted by Gobes32

My partner is in recruitment and she see's this first hand everyday. 48 year olds who were leading hands and cannot get a job at their local Bunnings etc. I am sort of fortunate that even though I may be made redundant in 4 years, I will only be 31 and will receive a redundancy payout that could potentially halve my mortgage. But it also scares me. I passed my VCE with flying colors, I have obtained tickets within my current employment. But once I leave the safety net of my current job, what is out there? And please don't mention mining jobs because anyone that actually works in mining will tell you there is a glut of workers at the moment and more people are being laid off than put on. It would appear that even the miners become unconfident in an unstable government.........

The 'cannot get a job at the local bunnings' all has to do with labour costs. It's cheaper to employ a pimply faced 15 year old than it is to pay a middle aged man. I'm not 'skilled' by any means, my transferrable skills come from many years in the industry I work in. After resigning from a well payed job just over a year ago, in the last three months I have tried to get back into full time employment...nada...recruitment companies don't have the professionalism that they used to (and I don't say that to have a dig at your partner, I was once in her shoes!). When I was working in recruitment, it was often the older candidates that I pushed for jobs, they had transferrable skills, good work history, but no 'skill/trade' as such...they wanted to work and they went out and did me proud. Seeing smiles on peoples faces was one of the best parts of my job...being told to f off by those who didn't want to work was what got me out of the industry. Trying to find a job close to home, particularly around here is hard...I'm currently getting around ten bucks an hour less than I was getting as a FT employee...as a temp...

I have also noticed of late the advertising of jobs that don't exist...recruitment companies used to use them to 'keep their talent pool up'...they like to call them Expressions of Interest these days, as opposed to a big advertisement calling all different work industries for jobs that are not currently available (and dependent on whether the recruitment company can get the contract to supply the said 'government agency, etc' with staff'...

As far as unskilled workers go, some of the bigger manufacturers (for example FMCG) are actually expanding, not shrinking...the food industry will always require workers, and their staff usually start out unskilled...

[cheap]

Simple:

Unskilled equates to A02-A04 casual/temp work for a state government department.

I find unskilled to be a terrible term as these people are moved from the private sector doing productive work and find themselves in meaningless roles essentially sucking on the public teat, no fault of their own and I do not hold anything against these folks - just my experience of what seems to be happening.

Our good hard earned tax dollars being used to keep bloated inefficient government bureaucracies shored up, whilst our taxes can not be used to keep private industries afloat - go figure???

[GhiaEB]

Originally Posted by Sezzy

the food industry will always require workers, and their staff usually start out unskilled...

As a baker in a large plant bakery I can safely say the shortage of job applicants is shocking. We are always looking for new employees as we have a massive turnover, however the jobs are all entry level and most people don't want to start at the bottom.

It could just be a W.A. thing, but when people are getting around $20 an hour to move racks , operate a pallet jack or pack boxes, only to walk out halfway through a shift, without telling anyone. It's makes you wonder.

Cheers

[SB076]

Originally Posted by GhiaEB

As a baker in a large plant bakery I can safely say the shortage of job applicants is shocking. We are always looking for new employees as we have a massive turnover, however the jobs are all entry level and most people don't want to start at the bottom.

It could just be a W.A. thing, but when people are getting around $20 an hour to move racks , operate a pallet jack or pack boxes, only to walk out halfway through a shift, without telling anyone. It's makes you wonder.

Cheers

I think that Perths situation is different than that on the East Coast - I know of someone that employees drivers (heavy vehicles) and they struggle to keep their staff becuase they cant offer a wage thats close to what the drivers can make at the mines.

[SB076]

I dont think many people realise how many jobs are directly involved in manufacturing (approx. 1 million jobs) Now take out those indirectly involved (accountants, IT support, cafe's, legal services etc) Its not a good thing that manufacturing is going offshore.
I was talking to a friend awhile ago, they advertised two vacancies and had 600 applicants - thats not healthy.

Mining jobs are not particularly safe either, I wonder how safe coal miners feel about their job security right now?

[maty]

Originally Posted by SB076

I dont think many people realise how many jobs are directly involved in manufacturing (approx. 1 million jobs) Now take out those indirectly involved (accountants, IT support, cafe's, legal services etc) Its not a good thing that manufacturing is going offshore.
I was talking to a friend awhile ago, they advertised two vacancies and had 600 applicants - thats not healthy.

Mining jobs are not particularly safe either, I wonder how safe coal miners feel about their job security right now?

Its not only manufacturing, working in transport(overnight express) we now get alot of customers that have there boxes labeled in china.We get the containers unload them then deliver, no need for a warehouse, all they will have soon is just a office in australia.Will it reduce the price of the product on the shelf i guess not.

[Gobes32]

Originally Posted by SB076

I was talking to a friend awhile ago, they advertised two vacancies and had 600 applicants - thats not healthy.

Ford had 5000 applicants for 15 apprenticeships. And the worst part is that Ford only put apprentices on after strike action was taken by Ford maintenance, and Ford was made to put apprentices on as part of the EBA. Makes me worried for all these kids graduating from John Howards Technical Colleges, the idea was great, but now there are no apprenticeships for them.........

As for IT, my partner on average, scores 2-3 IT Uni grads a week who end up working in a totally irrelevant field to what they studied.

[mik]

good thread Gobes32, it is a bit of a worry, the thing is the whole work environment has changed over the years, a lot of jobs that could be done by less educated , or under achievers are gone, these days unless you have a skill or can multi task many of the old employment possibilities are just not there, i have a mate in the local council, he has many tickets he has needed to get to keep his job, truck driver , fork lift driver, traffic control, first aid, heavy machinery ticket,and more, while its difficult for an unskilled older person, i`d say it may be more difficult with the lack of choices for a youngster these days, to me from my perspective i can only see it getting harder, especially with current economic outlook RE: the C.T.

[burnz]

well i think the opposite, i'm a ticketed tradie doing labouring unskilled work for more money.

[rocketscientist]

The service industry.

[Geez Louise]

Seeing as how I am having so many dramas with St George bank....I think they go and work there!

[Pis-ton broke]

I don,t know where they go, but they could go to Tafe and learn a skill.

[TheInterceptor]

Politics.

On a serious note, this country is headed down a bad road....when there are no jobs, how do we make money to afford anything? Hell even govco seem to be goin bust, i hear they are now taxing rainwater in SA..

Time to buy a farm and become self sustainable.

[Pis-ton broke]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Politics.

i hear they are now taxing rainwater in SA..

.

I hear your own dam should have a metre on it, and you are to be charged for the water used out of it (NSW), Is this right??

[TheInterceptor]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

I hear your own dam should have a metre on it, and you are to be charged for the water used out of it (NSW), Is this right??

Thats more or less what i heard but not in NSW? Hm. Defies logic... Charged for free natural rain water wow...

[XR6_661]

I think a lot of skilled workers are finding it hard too...

I'm a civil designer....am I doing that, nope? I'm working for a major shed company offering engineering support to our outlets.

[Pis-ton broke]

hope things work out for you.

I,m a boilermaker welder and for the last 4 weeks i was flat out working 12 hours(could of done more if i wanted) a day seven days a week, that job is done now. i,m back on 38 hour week, good one, intil i get hungery again.

[gtfpv]

i believe most office work is unskilled , sorry guys . but this is where we are heading . most bureaucratic work is made up self sustaining crap .

[jcxr]

Local government and teachers..........

[Spudz27]

I am worried about my job security atm. Not in the immediate future, but I can tell that my boss has had enough and is looking for a new path and they are starting a web store, so I think that in 2yrs if the web store is going great, when the lease is up my boss will sell up and move onto what he is currently wanting to do. I have plenty of skills as far as using myob, management, stock ordering, quotes, dealing with clients needs, problem solving, then there is my ambulance training I have etc etc, but I have sweet FA on paper to say I am qualified in any skill, except my ambo stuff, but even then to become a fulltime paramedic I have to give up work and study 1yr unpaid at uni.

[Pis-ton broke]

there are jobs for welders, we had got in contract welders at our place in western sydney, they were all korean and none of them could speak a word of english. And they weren,t very good welders either. one young welder turned up without his welding helmet, fcuken hopeless

[anolade]

Originally Posted by Pis-ton broke

there are jobs for welders, we had got in contract welders at our place in western sydney, they were all korean and none of them could speak a word of english. And they weren,t very good welders either. one young welder turned up without his welding helmet, fcuken hopeless

most welders/boilermakers these days can't read drawings or communicate with engieers about solution to jobs only person to date i know of that can do this is the old man ( no gloating ) 30yrs in trade, although my skill is limited in the trade i've seen the bad and worst. these days it's all structual or trailors work which in my opinion most of it is the TA's job.
most of the real skilled work has been sent overseas for cheap bad labour jobs.

[Blue Ice]

Originally Posted by anolade

most welders/boilermakers these days can't read drawings or communicate with engieers about solution to jobs only person to date i know of that can do this is the old man ( no gloating ) 30yrs in trade, although my skill is limited in the trade i've seen the bad and worst. these days it's all structual or trailors work which in my opinion most of it is the TA's job.
most of the real skilled work has been sent overseas for cheap bad labour jobs.

I'll have to disagree with you, most of the guys I've worked along side, and now supervising, would have to be some of the most capable tradesmen that I've worked with, both on the structural and pressure parts components. I've been doing this kind of work since I was 18 and doing an apprenticeship, I'm now 26, fully ticketed in pressure welding specialising in the welding of exotic materials and processes.

I'm now doing welding supervision and inspection, with both Australian and International qualifications, dealing with offshore oil/gas work and powerstation high pressure parts, often super critical projects. It's all about the company you work for and what they do on a day to day basis.

[Pis-ton broke]

good on you blue ice, it good to see a young tradesman do well. It looks like you will go far.

But back to my first post, if you are unskilled, well you can get skilled at tafe for starters.

[gtfpv]

on a serious note . essential services will always be there , and may be the only safe job security . communications, police, ambos, hospitals, food , power , transport, corrective services , imports, exports , travel , realestate , hairstyle, veterinary, dental.