How ****ed is the industry you work in?

Property 😥 …

For a supermarket 😀 !!!

Security contracting – Okish, but really need America to have another big war. Sarah Palin for president!

Freelance management consultancy for small local and regional charities and social enterprises – such as Citizens Advice Bureaux, youth organisations, recycling organisations etc. – the sort of organisations that Big Dave expects to deliver his Big Society vision b*llox. Contracts and projects have become almost non-existent and those that do exist have even more people putting proposals in.

Also do work for local authorities and primary care trusts, where opportunities have also dried up.

Media (tv and film side) is so hard to get into unless you have connections. And I don’t think you make much money unless you’re at the top.

MOD-cuts being made everywhere…in the firing line for redundancy on 1st sep.

ir_bandito – Member

Most of my work is related to offshore power: oil/gas/renewables.
There’s LOADS of work

Anyone want a job? We need people…

Aye!

I have 23 years experience as an Electrical Maintenance Engineer, but every job I’ve applied for demanded a minimum 2 – 5 years previous experience in the Industry, with all relevant tickets already in place!
Chicken/Egg?!

I work in the Highway Electrical Industry (basically street lighting) and in spite of Government cut backs on road building, I am yet to see a drop in workload.

Been self employed for 20 months now and haven’t had a day off through lack of work. My biggest customer is the nationwide leader in it’s field and while they have some direct employees, they also rely heavily on sub-contractors. They get a cost effective return from employing me and it shows – the work keeps coming.

Olympic Village and M1 J10-13 next for me – the money is a bit daft too.

I work in a bike shop

We’ve sold as many bikes in the last 9 months as we did in the previous year

High end and low end bikes are selling well, the mid range stuff is a bit sluggish & road bikes have been slow for us. MTB’s & hybrids have been flying out of the door this year

The way things are going it’s looking quite good, but I do fear the VAT on the C2W scheme will dent our sales a bit 🙁

cancer research;
redundancies all over the shop,
mostly government/university/nhs/charity funded so the moneys very scarce these days, its gonna be a long time before things pick up

I work in Television.

So long as there’s **** watching reality, there’s plenty of work!

Landfill. Its slowly dying as we all recycle more and more.

Whilst the company is diversifying into “new technologies” like AD plants and incinerators, all their loyal landfill staff, including myself, look like we’ll just be pushed out the door at some point as its clear they won’t be diversifying their staff….

Nice eh!

I am in the landfill gas side of things (rather then the construction or filling of landfills) so there will be plenty to do in that sector for many years but it is in slow decline.

Where the hell are all the IT consultants hiding?

I work in charity/creative industries, funding is very tight for all creative sector charities at the mo, not looking good for the future either. Many places have had wide scale redundancies, I had to reapply for my job on half as many hours. Also just started as one of those annoying part time photographers someone referred to above. Early days but there seems to be plenty of work out there. 😉

Broadband has become a utility to many, but the infrastructure is way behind where it should be, and with the Governments promises for a digital britain and massive network expansions (BT, Virgin and Fujitsu) means plenty of work for the next decade or so

Where the hell are all the IT consultants hiding?

😉 Didn’t we ascertain in one of the many ‘what do you do for a living?’ threads that IT is not the predominant trade for STWers?

Busier than ever.

Oil and gas related.

Flat out, oil and gas.

Broadband has become a utility to many, but the infrastructure is way behind where it should be, and with the Governments promises for a digital britain and massive network expansions (BT, Virgin and Fujitsu) means plenty of work for the next decade or so

Same here, I work on the network upgrade side and have more work and projects to do in the next few years than I know what to do with. It’s a busy in this business now.

Public transport seems to be doing OK. People will always want to ride on buses.

Flour milling, very busy as usual but then its such a basic foodstuff.

Margins are tighter than a ducks ar*e though (when I say tight some flours are £30 Tonne loss!!!)

We are recruiting as quite a lot of our staff are reaching retirement.

I’m looking for a multi skilled maintenance engineer at this moment.

Whisky industry doing very well as all the BRIC countries and oil industry folk celebrate their successes and all the other poor sods drown their sorrows!

Social Work – it’s still ****ed!

IT – specifically Business Intelligence (oxymoron?) Mad busy for the last 2 years.

Amb Service. Will always be work for us but money is starting to get tight. There’s been a lot of issues in the workplace that have just been dealt with using sticking plasters rather than curing the bigger problems. The recent meal break issue is a prime example. Slightly perturbed that 90 day notices of contract termination and potentially being rehired on less money/poorer t&cs are being seriously talked about..

oil and gas is keeping me busy enough

Carework: horrible cuts to already stretched services meaning a shift back to institutionalised practise. This results in treating large groups of very diverse people in a regimented, common denominator sort of way.

I’m studying to get into outdoor adventurous activities and maybe wilderness therapy. The outdoor leisure sector appears to be doing well and there are huge numbers of young people that need something constructive to do.

Interesting to get a feel for the spread of STW occupations as different people reply each time there’s a “what do you do?” thread.

The company I work for manufactures machinery for the paper industry. We’re doing well thanks to China. UK and US paper industry is knackered.

software working for you guessed it the oil and gas industry. Company is expanding and doing well but management are trying to make cut backs on things like the amount of milk and tea supplied for staff.

Looks like Oil and Gas is the industry to be in

Oil, Gas and Renewables …but Christ on a bike – it seems impossible to break in to!

Swelper – Member
Looks like Oil and Gas is the industry to be in

It’s not all well paid though, where I am the pay is shit, you need to be on the coal face to make any money, if you’re on the tools it can be cash monies!

Aerospace here too – we have more work than we can possibly cope with and are really struggling to recruit good engineering staff. In fact companies I have been involved with I would describe as being desperate for staff.

I just wish I was on an overtime grade to be honest as I would earn far more money even though I am on a few grades higher!

If you are a mechanical, systems, materials or stress engineer then there are plenty of jobs out there if you look – especially if you live between Bristol and Chester!

Besieged – that’s how I feel, along with super-hacked off. I take Kato’s point to a degree but this really is a bleak period for our line of work.

I work in Television.

So long as there’s **** watching reality, there’s plenty of work!

not for everyone, during the recession very little drama was commissioned for about a year, i know set designers who did nothing for a whole year as BBC/itv/c4 slashed budgets for new drama or went to eastern europe.

i’m in the photography biz for advertising/design and haven’t stopped for a year (was tough for about 8months beforehand) similar for the advertising/tv/drama people i know.

i did lose a major client who went in administration but seem to have filled the gap.

i don’t think this will last and expect the beginning of next year to be a bit grim for everybody so am making hay (worked every weekend for 7 weeks so far)

Design and print. While companies around us go belly up, we are taking on staff, investing in new equipment and producing more than ever.

Online editorial/freelance journalism – Not good at all. Rates have been screwed right down and there appears to be an increasing reliance on poorly paid juniors or unpaid interns to get the job done cheaply in-house.

Advertising – which drives editorial – appears to still be flat.

The industry is cyclical though, so I remain optimistic for an improvement in the next year or two.

Healthcare manufacturers. Only problem we have is competition. The more disasters there are, the better we do.

Oil and gas here, subsea construction, busy as fek at the moment and has been for the last 18-24 months, bit of a slack period before that when the barrel price dropped, North sea is up and down more often than a brides nighty, normally end up overseas, Africa, South America, Gulf when it slacks off a bit in the UK sector but now cant get away from the North Sea, bu99er!

Design and advertising – we seem to have weathered the storm ok tbh, no salary reviews in 3 years though, feeling the pinch

Major Sports governing body, busier than ever. Also our corporate/conferencing side is booming (which is the bit we thought would suffer in the recession).

My bags packed for NZ 8)

Made redundant from town planning job two years ago. Now in Probation but more cuts to come, worrying times.