Reply to: Yet another how is the market thread...

[CheeseSlice]

Now THIS is interesting:

Commenting on the latest statistics, John Philpott, Chief Economic Adviser at the CIPD, said:

"The private sector looks to have enjoyed a mini jobs boom in the second quarter of the year as the economic recovery gathered pace, with full-time employment in particular showing a most welcome rise. This was easily enough to offset a 22,000 drop in public sector jobs - in line with expectations - allowing unemployment to fall despite a sharp rise in the number of people entering the labour market. The result was a ‘jobs rich’ recovery for the UK in the spring and early summer, in stark contrast to the jobless recoveries experienced in the United States and much of continental Europe in the past year.

"But this mini jobs boom is unlikely to last. This is partly because the rise in employment was probably boosted by a one-off unwinding of the recruitment freezes introduced in much of the private sector during the recession. And with many businesses still operating below capacity having hoarded labour in the downturn it may require a much stronger and sustained economic recovery to maintain hiring rates. Indeed, forward looking surveys indicate that hiring activity dipped in the late summer, which may explain why the latest official figures also show a slight fall in job vacancies in the quarter ending in August and a small rise in the number of people unemployed and claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance."

Not what everyone wants to hear, but it helps to back up what I've personally noticed lately

[CheeseSlice]

What's your skillset CS?

custom app infrastructure design/implement: Wintel, IIS, .NET, SQL, hyper-v, vmware, to name a few.

[MrMark]

To see how bad the market is I take a peek at Gumtree. If there aren't even muppet jobs paying £8 a hour for sys/admins/dbas/devlopers with 15 years experience, then you can be sure the economy is in a very bad state.

[gadgetman]

And those fires were down in Victoria anyway so no-one really cares.

Oi, its loverly down here in Vic too. The bay looks particularly nice today.

I had to go to an animal sanctuary to find anything remotely dangerous. The most I've seen in the wild (apart from on a trip Uluru) are some possums and lots of multi-coloured parroty type things (probably parrots).

Apart from that, WHS.

Hey stan are you resident or still enjoying the LAFHA

[Stan.goodvibes]

Stinking hot, water shortages and the place is on fire half the time. I'll give it a miss I think.

um you mean a nice 5-18 degrees in winter and anywhere from 20-35 in Summer? Kind of like the Med really, but without those annoying foreigners who don't read The Sun, can't speak Queens English (and what other language IS there?) and can't understand that we don't want huevos con tocino for breakfast, we want bacon and eggs!

Fortunately one of the good things about English abroad is that if you speak it slowly and loudly enough, anyone can understand you.

Anyhoo, i digest. As I WAS saying, the weather is great. The power shower in MY bathroom in the apartment belts out enough water per second to douse a major forest fire, so there is no water shortage where I am (Sydney). And those fires were down in Victoria anyway so no-one really cares.

As for Wanderers girly fear of spiders - (as the Aussies say) "Harden the f**k up, mate!". I have yet to encounter anything deadly or even remotely painful since I have been here. I think all those snakes and spider stories are just that - stories to stop poofs from coming here :-)

As for jobs, I'm in SQL Development and MS BI but there are jobs all across the board, and my agent friends (yes, I actally socialise with some) are constantly bemoaning the lack of candidates for roles. And the latest whinge - Westpac pushing rates up so its getting even harder to source good candidates! You can imagine how I sympathise...

So yes, boom times all round. Its so good here, there isn't even a word for 'recession' in the Australian language. I'm underpaid (apparently) but still getting equivalent of 2000 quid a week, and my mega 2-bed 2-bath apartment with rooftop pool and spa etc etc etc is costing me (and my flatmate) a whopping 235 quid a week each (thanks XE.com). And its less than 10 minutes walk to work. With Darling Harbour and water views. And Aircon. And a balcony for the barby.

So come on over, escape the doom and gloom of a recessiony UK winter and enjoy the Summer of sun, beach and surf in the lucky country. Experience the wonder of going to Ikea and getting everything you bought into the back of a Holden Ute. Of actually gettiing sick of eating fresh prawns cooked on the barby (or my personal fave - tiring of grass-fed unfrozen eye fillet steak every day at 12 quid/kilo). Of seeing yet another *yawn* smokin' hot chick in a bikini getting in your way as you glide across clear warm water on your surfboard wearing nothing but a pair of boardies and some sunblock...

OK, must do some work....

[Clippy]

2 calls this morning before 10am. Both from desparate sounding agents.
I've steadily had about 2 calls per day for the past week, but sadly nothing close to right has come up yet.

Yesterday I had two calls directly from companies. This was very strange, its like some of the big IT firms have ditched the agencies and are now setting up their own recruitment firms and using jobsite/jobserve recruiter accounts.

What's your skillset CS?

[CheeseSlice]

What happened to the recovery?

Didn't you know? We're riding the double dip rollercoaster... hold onto you're hats as we're about to go down the 2nd dip...and its a big one

[CheeseSlice]

2 calls this morning before 10am. Both from desparate sounding agents.
I've steadily had about 2 calls per day for the past week, but sadly nothing close to right has come up yet.

Yesterday I had two calls directly from companies. This was very strange, its like some of the big IT firms have ditched the agencies and are now setting up their own recruitment firms and using jobsite/jobserve recruiter accounts.

[ItsQuickerAntiClockwise]

What happened to the recovery?

It tanked once the UK started to realise we needed to actually address the economic issues rather than the Labour method of just paying for it on our childrens credit card.

[MrMark]

What happened to the recovery?

[gadgetman]

Also booming here in Melbourne.

"Seek.com.au" is the main job site in Oz. (It's owned by Jobserve though I think)

From their site, filtering only for ICT:

17,743 Information & Communication Technology jobs in Australia

So about three time as many IT jobs and a population 1/3rd the size of the UK.

So yes, no shortage of work.

Canberra is as boring as battulip though.

[SueEllen]

Stinking hot, water shortages and the place is on fire half the time. I'll give it a miss I think.

You forgot the killer animals like spiders which we have a shortage of in the UK.

[Wanderer]

Fair call. Still a much better jobs/population ratio than the UK though. And the weather is a bit better too...

Stinking hot, water shortages and the place is on fire half the time. I'll give it a miss I think.

[padinka]

That's including permie jobs. I got 5,819 contracts when I did a search.

Fair call. Still a much better jobs/population ratio than the UK though. And the weather is a bit better too...

[Bunk]

"Seek.com.au" is the main job site in Oz. (It's owned by Jobserve though I think)

From their site, filtering only for ICT:

17,743 Information & Communication Technology jobs in Australia

So about three time as many IT jobs and a population 1/3rd the size of the UK.

So yes, no shortage of work.

Canberra is as boring as battulip though.

That's including permie jobs. I got 5,819 contracts when I did a search.