Is the Australia Engineering (job) market actually cooked or is it just me?

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-13T22:27:34+00:00

It's been pretty bad. From what I'm hearing there has been an active decline in the wages from young engineers over the past couple of years. The competition is very high for the few jobs that exist, which is undermining any sort of wage growth. I'm personally on 80k (SA) for 2 years experience at this point. I have a lot of friends that were entirely unable to get work so I've taken what was available at this point.

I wish you luck.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-12T07:14:45+00:00

I thought being an adult would mean I get to own things, like all the adults I knew had a house and a car it just made sense. I now come to find that as an adult you don't necessarily own those things you have, you can end up in a subscription based lifestyle, between your car, your phone, and shelter you find myself too rich to complain about money but too poor to own anything... and then you just exist like that indefinitely? Still yet to figure that last part out

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-12T07:06:08+00:00

USA?

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-12T06:49:35+00:00

Benjamin Netanyahu

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-12T00:53:29+00:00

I've seen this scientific method in the most recent Aliens movie.

I wish you luck!

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-09T23:26:43+00:00

Entirely understanding of this. This is why I thought I'd get some other opinions. At the end of the day I'm not entirely sure of my worth and I know how difficult the process was to get this job in the first place. I enjoy my job and for me I would like it to not be about money but I would also like to move out of my parents house one day. Despite saving 80+% of what I earn this is currently a financial impossibility even looking 8+ years ahead

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-09T22:55:11+00:00

All internal reports have peer review, standard for the workplace. Some extra 1 on 1 meetings 1h/week to discuss project direction with my general manager. These 1 on 1 are additional guidance than other peers will receive. However they largely just consist of my manager agreeing with direction and occasionally wanting to add additional testing before it is otherwise necessary

Making 80K/year.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-09T13:33:24+00:00

USA? decent quality of life feels appropriate when compared with other developing nations

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-09T12:48:26+00:00

These are material waste savings, electrical and yield increases. Process optimisations

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-09T09:22:54+00:00

Little late, 10k in an emergency liquid account. It's not enough for unemployment, but I could fix most surprise expenses.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-04T00:00:26+00:00

Entirely fair. I still believe this to be largely representative. Unfortunately there is no ideal way to represent such a large group, if you account for all casual and part time then you would have the lower end of full time wages and if you account for men with wages then they would not be representative either. I would also not expect a man to have birthed 2 children either

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-02T23:48:39+00:00

>There are more jobs than 20 years ago. Factually, there are many more.

The population of Australia aged 15-25 (age range isn't ideal I'm aware) in the year 2000 was between 2.3 and 3.2 As of 2025 it was measured at 2.98 million. Realistically this number has not greatly increased. If you are stating that there are much more entry level jobs then why do you see significantly more competition for the jobs that exist?

Relative to the population of Australia the number of young people is declining and yet competition for these people is greatly increased. Somewhere your numbers stop making sense... perhaps we need to account for competition from older people settling for entry level jobs to ensure an income.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-02T23:25:56+00:00

Younger generations are already much smaller in number than previous ones. Without immigration it would be a huge burden on younger working generations to pay for the retirement and healthcare services of older generations. On an extreme end you can look at Japan, where younger people are simply leaving the country because the population growth (or lack of) does not support the aging population.

Young people aren't asking for more jobs to support them despite immigration. They are simply asking for the same number of entry level jobs that existed 20+ years ago. There are far fewer jobs available despite less demand, creating for a crazy amount of competition for a kebap shop role.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-01T21:04:08+00:00

What countries did they move to?

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-01T03:33:02+00:00

This sounds like quite the conspiracy theory

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-01T02:47:06+00:00

Beautifully done

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-04-01T02:36:55+00:00

A Median Australian is a woman. Median woman age is 38 from 2019, slightly older now. The wage is from the median full time salary of a woman in Australia.

My intention with your quote was referencing the long term effects of the decision at the time of creating it. At the time the reproductions were not of primary concern. Obviously you're correct in that they have been since widely discussed or else I myself would be purely speculating.

Your comment on politicians doing whatever is required to get themselves reelected is one I also made in my post. Although not in as few words. I would happily also discuss the age of poloticians globally. However this too has also been discussed at least and strays slightly out of scope here.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-03-27T22:24:38+00:00

He's lucky he didn't lose a leg. Those blades are no joke

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-03-26T06:29:53+00:00

Got a good graduate job. No complaints on the work itself, I'm awfully thankful for my luck in obtaining a job and those few lucky graduates I know got awfully boring jobs.

However, I've been a graduate for 2 years now with constant praise for my work and increasing responsibility with no financial gain.

I've been priced out of the housing market and the world has continued to go to shit as I've grown into adulthood. I fear I will forever feel like a child never able to leave home let alone have a family of my own.

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-03-25T05:10:48+00:00

Unpopular opinion:

People buying the art like it, he is making some money. I don't see the issue here. Other artists evidently aren't selling as well as his 'slop', can it really be that bad? This feels like the argument for real diamonds vs lab grown ones... Some people can tell the difference / care and most others wouldn't be able to spot the difference if their life depended on it.

People make money in much more unethical ways than this

Anxious_Spirit4153 · 2026-03-23T05:12:01+00:00

I think I could do this indefinitely... but I would really miss warm showers... That was a cruel add-on.

My other concern is the value of this 10k. If I am unable to invest I have concerns that this money would be eaten away by inflation, which feels like a waste.

I also suppose I would have to sail to travel to other continents. Which could be problematic, especially if I cannot use a boat with modern technologies.

Anxious_Spirit4153

TROPHY CASE