Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

Australian Job Losses

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numbercruncher said:
Looks like another 500 on the scrapheap .....
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Will be interesting to see the next round of unemployment figures. The company I'm currently working for gave a round-a-bout warning of, 'tough times ahead, pick up your act or pick up your notice' type speech, without being as direct.
 
young-gun said:
Will be interesting to see the next round of unemployment figures. The company I'm currently working for gave a round-a-bout warning of, 'tough times ahead, pick up your act or pick up your notice' type speech, without being as direct.
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Similar things happening at my work - including some people being asked leave over East (Big 4 Firm)
 
young-gun said:
Will be interesting to see the next round of unemployment figures. The company I'm currently working for gave a round-a-bout warning of, 'tough times ahead, pick up your act or pick up your notice' type speech, without being as direct.
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Steve C said:
Similar things happening at my work - including some people being asked leave over East (Big 4 Firm)
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Firm i work for has employed about 20% more staff within the last year and looking to bring in more. One of the few growth stories in finance as far as i can tell
 
At work I deal quite a lot with suppliers etc, most of which are small businesses with many customers.

It's to the point now that I don't even ask how things are going, but almost all of them mention it anyway. The odd one or two says things are going OK, but most say that business is slow or outright dismal. It's probably fair to assume that this will lead to job losses in due course, if it hasn't already.

A significant contractor that we use went bust a few weeks ago. This was a contractor doing fairly specialised civil construction and electrical type work. I don't know how many employees they had, but I'd guess maybe 50 or so.

Another thing I've noticed is that there does seem to be less traffic on the roads. OK, the streets of Tasmania aren't exactly the best place to find lots of traffic :) but it does seem quieter than it used to be. The only real explanations I can come up with relate to the economy - if people don't have a job then they won't be driving to and from work. And if they aren't spending then there's less freight to transport too. It's not as though there's some other logical explanation like a surge in petrol prices or an expansion of public transport services.:2twocents
 
Smurf1976 said:
At work I deal quite a lot with suppliers etc, most of which are small businesses with many customers.

It's to the point now that I don't even ask how things are going, but almost all of them mention it anyway. The odd one or two says things are going OK, but most say that business is slow or outright dismal. It's probably fair to assume that this will lead to job losses in due course, if it hasn't already.
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I deal directly with about 150 different companies across virtually every industry in my role. Most are reporting 'flat' or 'average' conditions. Not many are saying dismal etc.

Anything mining related is doing well, vast majority is average (just paying the bills and wages), fashion and a lot of manufacturing are very poor.

That's my experience with a sample size of 150 :)
 
I should have added that in my case all of them are civil, electrical, mechanical etc either suppliers of equipment, tools etc or contractors. The kind of businesses who have utilities, local government, manufacturers etc as their main customers.
 
Smurf1976 said:
At work I deal quite a lot with suppliers etc, most of which are small businesses with many customers.

It's to the point now that I don't even ask how things are going, but almost all of them mention it anyway. The odd one or two says things are going OK, but most say that business is slow or outright dismal. It's probably fair to assume that this will lead to job losses in due course, if it hasn't already.

A significant contractor that we use went bust a few weeks ago. This was a contractor doing fairly specialised civil construction and electrical type work. I don't know how many employees they had, but I'd guess maybe 50 or so.

Another thing I've noticed is that there does seem to be less traffic on the roads. OK, the streets of Tasmania aren't exactly the best place to find lots of traffic :) but it does seem quieter than it used to be. The only real explanations I can come up with relate to the economy - if people don't have a job then they won't be driving to and from work. And if they aren't spending then there's less freight to transport too. It's not as though there's some other logical explanation like a surge in petrol prices or an expansion of public transport services.:2twocents
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The past 2 weekends(sundays) I have been dragged along to the the biggest shopping mall on the north-side of brisbane. Normally I dred going as it's packed, you can't get a park, you have to wait for a seat to eat your food in the food courts. Especially if it's raining as it was on one of the two occasions.

The past 2 weekends have been quite the opposite. we arrived at midday, grabbed lunch straight away, seats everywhere, plenty of parking close to entrances, far less crowds of people fighting against you down the corridors. Perhaps it's just a one off thing, but I've personally never seen it so quiet.
 
In Nth.Qld. (north of Cairns), house building is starting to crawl back into motion.
Mareeba is busy in the streets.
In Cairns a number of small business have gone broke, with more having sales and moving to cheaper rent.
Mobile Homes and caravans have been on the move the last two weeks.

However the traffic is not quite as busy as last year.
joea
 
I am quite happy to be Full Time Unemployed and therefore adding to the jobless numbers.

Not quite true as I do casual but firms don't want me full time so I make do with what is available mainly for the social aspects as opposed to a need for money.
 
A major chemical manufacturer here in WA has halved its production levels because of issues in China.

No job lay off's yet
 
Judd said:
I am quite happy to be Full Time Unemployed and therefore adding to the jobless numbers.
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If you work more than an hour a week you are in fact classified as working, so you are adding to the employed numbers, not the jobless
 
So spend 1 hour a week looking for a job means you are employed..??

China will be a good market for any thing related to head ache's as they have a few coming.
 
prawn_86 said:
If you work more than an hour a week you are in fact classified as working, so you are adding to the employed numbers, not the jobless
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Yes, I know. There weren't enough sarcasm mots to put in my previous post. :)

It is an odd definition. It has, I think, been in since the 1950's but obviously I stand to be corrected on that.

It is rather illuminating where I presently occupy some of my week (I really shouldn't call it work). A number of my work colleagues, yes, they are doing it tough. And I am not necessarily referring to a group younger than myself. A number are there because they have to be and need every dollar they can get. Partner ill, divorce, etc, etc. Scared of losing the work and not being able to get another. A whole range of issues. The work arena has changed dramatically since the mid-70's even though at that time there was a drop in employment (Oil crisis stuff).

Also, I sometimes wonder if there should be a category of Employed but no income. Two of my friends are in the building trade. One did some commercial work for a large company and finished it in May. $45,000. When I spoke to him last week, he still hadn't been paid. Mightly annoyed. The other even more so. Since April, hadn't been able to contact a bloke he has known for over 20 years and who owes him $15k. Yep, finds out he has declared himself bankrupt. No probs though. $2 for another company name and Bob the Builder keeps on keeping on. Sad about the people he owed money to but whatever.
 
Re: Australian Job Growth.

Maybe it is technically not growth, but there is a marked shift towards full time company employment rather than outsourced contractor type of employment in some sectors.

AGL is creating a whole new in-house back-up maintenance funtion to supplement its first-reponse team at Loy Yang power station. This is a team of 10 workers on a base of around $100k each. It will largely replace its pool of contractor supplied labour that was called upon to do the mundane preventative work and peak load labour requirement.

It is good to see the creation of highly skilled and highly paid in-house positions. Companies like AGL are not foolish - hopefully others see the light and shy away from outsourcing/casualisation etc as well.
 
So far as outsourcing is concerned, it makes sense for one off and other temporary situations but I can't see how it saves money when the work is ongoing. Doing it in house has always seemed the more sensible option to me.

The workers get paid and materials are needed either way. But with outsourcing you need people dealing with contracts and administration both for the customer and the outsourced provider and this doesn't come cheap. Then you have more people controlling and directing the work than you would otherwise have, again because you need two sets of them in many cases. Then there's the higher costs associated with uncertainty over long term operations (unless it's a very long term contract). Then you have profit for the provider. I just can't see how that's actually cheaper than doing it yourself, assuming as I said that we're talking about permanent, ongoing work.
 
LTQ Engineering in Tullamarine, VIC to close down. Circa 160 jobs to go by Sep
 

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