State of the Market

[TheDude]

3) Remote working - I don't really know how companies can expect people to go back to the office - many people have rebuilt their lives after COVID and going back to the office is not an option.

Earning £500-900 a day is also an option and if you don't want to commute there are people who will. Very few people are irreplaceable.

[PCTNN]

Late to the party, but I've got a few questions / observations.

1) I just don't really know how hundreds of thousands of people (again, how many of us are out there?) who used to earn in excess of £100k per year can survive on savings or £40k salaries. My mortgage only eats 1/3rd of our income, but I've been out of a job for 7 months now and I'm running out of savings.

How do I manage? For a start I wasn't dumb enough to get a mortgage that eats up 1/3 of my income. I've always been aware that the gravy train could potentially stop. Currently my mortgage is 1/7 of my income, I've got a healthy warchest and I could get a 40k salary job without losing any sleep. So lesson number 1: don't live beyond your means.

[wettowel]

Im going to guess you are single with no children.

[Paralytic]

Late to the party, but I've got a few questions / observations.

1) Does anyone know how many of us are out there? It's baffling that nobody is worried about this - we've got mortgages, car loans, credit cards to pay, etc. and I just don't really know how hundreds of thousands of people (again, how many of us are out there?) who used to earn in excess of £100k per year can survive on savings or £40k salaries. My mortgage only eats 1/3rd of our income, but I've been out of a job for 7 months now and I'm running out of savings. Even if I get a £40k permie job, it won't cover the bills - it will only add to the suffering. Is the HM Government going to print more money to rescue us when things go bad? Or will they leave us for dead? How can nobody see this as a massive problem?
2) If things don't get better quickly, the next two professions that will cease to exist will be recruiters and HR staff. These clowns used to make so much money on us - if we don't have jobs, they won't have jobs! Add them to the picture, and things look pretty bleak for the entire economy.
3) Remote working - I don't really know how companies can expect people to go back to the office - many people have rebuilt their lives after COVID and going back to the office is not an option. Even if I wanted to, my girlfriend wouldn't let me, as it would mean that she has to quit her job and be a SAHM again, which she won't agree to.
4) What's the deal with the ridiculous "AWS developer" job trend (I'm in the IT)? WHO or WHAT is that AWS developer guy / gal? Where is this ridiculous trend coming from - the companies or the recruiters?
5) GOD HELP US ALL

Hate to be that guy, but the above reeks of self-entitlement. You've had it good but are now facing the reality that 90% of the population is facing. If you can no longer offer the skills the market is after, you'll either need to re-skill, or (and maybe also) change your lifestyle to fit with your current earning capability.

HR and recruitment will be fine - and they don't make money off us - they make it off their clients. You've fallen into the common misconception in thinking you are their customer - you are not, you are their product - the commodity they are selling.

And the government don't care about a few IT contractors who fall on hard times. And neither should they.

As for WFH - again, that's your choice as a couple when she/you had a child. I'm assuming the choice to have a child was not based on the premise in being able to WFH in perpetuity?

[PCTNN]

Im going to guess you are single with no children.

You guess wrong.

[TheDude]

And the government don't care about a few IT contractors who fall on hard times. And neither should they.

Many of whom justified their enthusiastic pursuit of tax efficiencies because they needed to provide a 'war chest' for just such occasions.

[rocktronAMP]

Late to the party, but I've got a few questions / observations.

1) Does anyone know how many of us are out there? It's baffling that nobody is worried about this - we've got mortgages, car loans, credit cards to pay, etc. and I just don't really know how hundreds of thousands of people (again, how many of us are out there?) who used to earn in excess of £100k per year can survive on savings or £40k salaries. My mortgage only eats 1/3rd of our income, but I've been out of a job for 7 months now and I'm running out of savings. Even if I get a £40k permie job, it won't cover the bills - it will only add to the suffering. Is the HM Government going to print more money to rescue us when things go bad? Or will they leave us for dead? How can nobody see this as a massive problem?
2) If things don't get better quickly, the next two professions that will cease to exist will be recruiters and HR staff. These clowns used to make so much money on us - if we don't have jobs, they won't have jobs! Add them to the picture, and things look pretty bleak for the entire economy.
3) Remote working - I don't really know how companies can expect people to go back to the office - many people have rebuilt their lives after COVID and going back to the office is not an option. Even if I wanted to, my girlfriend wouldn't let me, as it would mean that she has to quit her job and be a SAHM again, which she won't agree to.
4) What's the deal with the ridiculous "AWS developer" job trend (I'm in the IT)? WHO or WHAT is that AWS developer guy / gal? Where is this ridiculous trend coming from - the companies or the recruiters?
5) GOD HELP US ALL

I am not religious. Can't help with 5.
1) How about one month to go with savings money?
2) Well HR will fall soon after we all go. Probably a boon to Hired.com, Cord, Hackarank and other junk "look no middle person" sites.
3) This tension will exist for decade. Some professions really to be in-person, design agencies and other can be fully remote. The compromise is not known yet.
4) Well this is real. It is Rad not Fad, since the year.... er... 2005, AWS. Yes Amazon Web Services has been with us. Public cloud is a way forward for many business. I found the administration of such is usually off-limit and protected in some secure way. The easy thing to learn is S3 in AWS. You just need to experience once the natureof it with AWS, or GCP or AZure. So find a new gig that allows you get on aboard with it. Oh wait! You are still looking for the new gig as am I.

[rocktronAMP]

How do I manage? For a start I wasn't dumb enough to get a mortgage that eats up 1/3 of my income. I've always been aware that the gravy train could potentially stop. Currently my mortgage is 1/7 of my income, I've got a healthy warchest and I could get a 40k salary job without losing any sleep. So lesson number 1: don't live beyond your means.

Yes it easy to chat from the high mountain or hill top and look down on those of us who have fallen.
But your PCTNN you are correct if we apply hindsight from the year 2010. If we could see all the tradegies since the T party came into being. Anyway, let's leave the politics out.

Feast and famine in contracting, but unfortunately it is suddenly appearing in permanent markets. Look at the tech layoffs. You are lucky you are not youthful "Yoof" with the Metas and Amazons. What was it 9000 going and 27000 at Meta to come at the time of writing?

Since 2010, the eligibility for getting redundancy pay is constant 2 year employment. A company can terminate your job any time before the 2 year limit except on grounds of pregnancy, equality and gender. (Even Pregnancy is being challenged.) I remember when entitlement to redundancy was 3 months (1999/ 2000s) and then it increased to 12 months (2010s). I was contracting a lot of the time so I didn't care for it. Investment banks did take care of restructuring. It happened to me with twoo banks, and you could sit pretty for 6 months whilst searching for another banking job.

In reality, there is no such as unexpendable resource and every man and women has to fight in the rat race. I am sure wettowei has not greatly benefitted as much they have, because we certainly have not been living a booming economy since 2006. When did SubPrime happen again? The Big Short great movie explains a lot of what happened. We all have made one or two financial mistakes. I also worried by debts like credit cards, car loan purchases, and we seem to have constant iron widget around our necks and it does not feel we are going to get out of it. Can't believe am I saying this in 2023 ....

[jamesbrown]

I think we need GigiBronz to adjudicate.

[Bluenose]

5) GOD HELP US ALL

Yep, this feels like end-game stuff to me.