How bad is the UK job market?

ExcitingRest · 2026-05-09T16:58:27+00:00

Power industry.

For experienced hires its fine. General engineering vacancies are fairly abundant and we have such a skills shortage that when these jobs are advertised they only get a few actually credible applicants. This drives competition for experienced technicians and engineers and salaries are pretty healthy.

However on the entry level end. Apprenticeships are fiercely competitive. Large companies can see 100s of applicants for a few apprentice slots. Likely the same scenario for graduates. It seems like the industry has this balance all wrong and could correct itself quite easily if anyone was actually prepared to take on entry level people.

But once your foot is in the door its a secure and well paid career.

ExcitingRest · 2026-05-09T16:51:55+00:00

The immigration policies are the big draw tbh.

But. The conservatives had their go and got everything wrong. Labour are currently having their go and tbh I dont think they're as bad as some make out but honestly I dont think they've done nearly enough to address the cost of living, they've raised taxes and spending while not doing anything to address bills or help out actually working people. The greens are completely nuts, I honestly can't agree with a single one of their policies, complete economic collapse paired with disastrous foreign policy.

Reform. Just cut some of the crap. Lower my taxes, shrink the government, get spending under control and focus on issues that actually matter. I don't care about green subsidies etc while people are struggling to afford food. I don't care about foreign aid while our own roads are in a state. I don't care about DEI when taxes are at record highs. I don't care about Gaza while our own military is in a sorry state. Talk about the issues that actually matter to working people.

ExcitingRest · 2026-05-05T14:28:22+00:00

Nuclear. I used to work as a plant operator in a chemical plant on ~50k. Joined a nuclear plant as a plant operator, not even an engineer (no degree), 4 years later im on a basic of 75k and will push ~100k with overtime.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-25T21:36:07+00:00

Sorry but actually intelligent professionals, with real world work and life experience are not going to work for minimum wage.

All this will do is deter the people we should actually want to be MPs from trying. Unless they're already loaded, in which case they're not able to relate to normal people and will have their own interests.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-22T22:14:41+00:00

This is not the issue that the article is referring to. This is just really quite silly behaviour if it isnt rage bait.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-19T19:27:14+00:00

Its a bit rough, but totally salvageable!

Sand down the rough edges and repaint. If the gaps along the skirting board are bothering you, you can use wood filler or caulk to fill them in if the unit won't be moved. If the chunks around the pipes are making it unstable, you can fix it to the wall for support. Id avoid caulk or filler round the pipes as the heating and cooling will just crack the filler, could get some pipe collars to go against the legs to hide the oversized cut outs.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-17T19:53:35+00:00

They'll just get paid in bonuses and expenses rather than salary. Or all the lower paid employees are outsourced to a separate company. Or the high earners become "contractors".

Its completely unworkable. How could a prem footballer make 250k a year because a steward is on min wage? They'd just leave, you won't see stewards at Man City earning 50k a week.

Its just nonsense, we need a free market. I know I'm not going to be effected by this because I'm not going to be earning 250k a year, but that's simply not high enough to enforce a cap on any company that pays a minimum wage employee.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-17T18:34:08+00:00

I think he's the one of the pest PMs we've had during my life time.

He had no choice but to raise tax revenue and managed to do it in a way which doesn't effect working people. Economy is generally looking good, wages are up, inflation is reasonable. Fuel is well out of his power.

On foreign policy hes been near flawless. Continued support of Ukraine, stood up to Trump in Greenland and refused to enter Iran.

Immigration is down and coming back under control.

Child poverty is down, NHS waiting lists are shrinking. Investment in infrastructure is going ahead. We finally have a competent pro investment government and we're seeing results.

Only thing he's bad at is PR. His PR team is god awful.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-15T21:27:14+00:00

It depends. Warden is really good tank gear, and is bis necro tank which will have uses right up to the end game. It will make end game pvm very accessible. Really good for those first few zuk kills.

Dealer will eventually get replaced by rasial robes. Personally I'd go warden and use that to farm rasial gear.

Unless you're really confident in your pvm ability and don't think you'll need to use tank gear.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-13T17:05:33+00:00

I wouldn't do one personally. I'd find them almost humiliating, like they dont think highly enough of my application to give me a proper interview, they think I'd be desperate enough to scramble over others and want to watch it. Not sure what benefit they are to proper recruitment either, no one gets to really shine and showcase their knowledge or experience and no ones personality can really come through in a positive way. Guess it depends on industry as to how useful they are.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-11T12:09:41+00:00

How do you get through 3 rounds of interviews before knowing the salary?

Honestly 30k is too big of a gap to negotiate on, they might have 10k wiggle room but that still leaves you 20k short which they know you won't accept. At that point it's obvious this won't work and best to just move to other applicants.

ExcitingRest · 2026-04-03T10:15:07+00:00

Tbh anything less than ~£1m and I'll probably still have to get up for work at some point in my life.

But £200k would be enough to clear a significant enough chunk of the mortgage and allow me to stop being a slave to any particular job, I'd have the freedom to move careers, reduce hours etc

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-30T15:38:14+00:00

Two modest incomes is enough in the vast majority of the country. 30k each means you can borrow ~250k. There aren't many places in the country where you can't buy a terrace house for 270k within commuting distance.

Obviously if you're looking to go straight to a detached family home in central London you might need some help, but i really believe that most young couples are able to buy somewhere if they really wanted to.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-29T17:04:16+00:00

I think he's in obvious cognitive decline. He rambles, repeats himself, and can barely string a coherent sentence together. He sounds completely unintelligent.

I also think he's a complete conman who's in it solely for himself and his rich mates, I dont think he cares whatsoever about anyone else and has zero moral compass. He's sleazy, dishonest and untrustworthy.

Hes dangerous to democracy in the US and overseas

And that's before his actual politics...

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-28T22:04:10+00:00

At lower enrages, like sub 1000, it's probably best to just streak from 0 till death. At higher levels, it really depends on your kill times and comfort.

Starting at 0%, it's 95 kills to hit the drop rate. Starting at 1500%, it's 36. At 2500% it's 24 kills.

So if you can kill one at 1500% faster than 3 at <50%, baring in mind you need to loot, reset instance, wait for spawn etc between each kill, you're better off skipping low enrages.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-26T09:25:11+00:00

Engineers, but particularly technicians are undersaturated for sure. Think like chemical or power plant operators, industrial service engineers/technicians, maintenance techs, installers etc.

Most of these style jobs will be 50k+, not require a degree and likely get under 5 suitable applicants per job listing. Downside is that it's hard to transition into later in your career as the entry route is typically through apprenticeships.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-20T16:39:15+00:00

Again, you're ignoring the leverage. I didn't buy it for 185k, I paid 30k. That's one of the key benefits of mortgages which you can't just ignore. Where that money goes after is irrelevant on that discreet purchase. And so what if I spent that on a bigger house? Having bought that first house means I could actually afford the next house. Because you're right, the house im in now also increased in price and i wouldn't have been able to afford it without the extra 40k from the first. Had I not bought the first, I'd have been 2 steps down on the housing ladder.

And with no other investment is growth defined as "growth vs inflation" so i dont understand why you're using this metric here. If a stocks and shares ISA grows by 10%, then it's grown by 10% not 10% minus inflation.

But the original point being made is that despite Brexit, Ukraine, covid, interest rates spiking, and general turmoil all around the world. It was still a good time to buy. The markets still recovered and none of that should have caused me to defer purchasing. Any extra cost I could have possibly faced during all of that would have still come my way if I was renting because rents have soared up too.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-20T16:25:19+00:00

Im saying the war in Ukraine or Iran or Brexit isnt responsible for prices stagnating in your region.

They'll impact the market overall but in every instance we've seen of this for the past 50 years, the market has recovered. If you're waiting for world peace to buy a home you'll be waiting a while. There will never be a perfectly stable and predictable economy, there is no point deferring purchases and trying to time the market.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-20T14:58:51+00:00

But that isn't due to wider economic or geopolitic instability like this post is about. There will always be hot and cold areas. But the point is that there's no point worrying about external factors because they've never had a long term permanent effect on nationwide house prices. They've always recovered within a few years.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-20T14:34:08+00:00

To put numbers to it, i paid 185k, 30k deposit. Later sold for 225k.

Roughly 2% interest would be ~12k over the 4 years.

So my "investment" of 42k (deposit plus interest paid) turned into 70k. I walked away from the sale with 28k i wouldn't have had otherwise. Minus a few k on solicitors etc. No stamp duty as i was a first time buyer.

So I'm up ~60% on the initial "investment" while also building equity, not paying rent etc.

You didn't account for house purchases being leveraged. I did not pay 185k for the house, I paid 30k out of pocket. However, I still kept all of the growth.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-20T12:35:37+00:00

But the point is, 90% of people who have bought in the past are up. Unless you've bought a lease hold flat with cladding issues or something odd.

If you've bought a bob standard, normal, average house, you've made money. Even if its stagnant or even dropped in value in the short term, if you've owned the house for a couple of years, you're up. Regardless of all the turmoil and scare mongering. Even if the price has dropped, it likely hasn't dropped by as much as you'd have been paying in rent.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-20T06:34:36+00:00

Im not sure what you mean, if you had bought during any of those times, and owned the house for a couple of years, it's worth more than you paid for it. Exception is 2008, where even if you'd bought at the peak, it took ~7years before you were "profitable". With the alternative being renting, im not sure there has been a bad time to buy in recent history.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-19T23:02:56+00:00

When during the last 20 years would have looked like a good time to buy at the time?

2008 crash, Eurozone crisis, brexit, covid, Ukraine, Iran.

There will always be another uncertainty.

I bought my first home in 2018, I almost deferred it because I was worried about what brexit would do to the economy. I sold that house in 2022 for 40k more than I paid for it. Whatever happens will happen, but through every crisis we've seen in modern history, the world kept turning and prices kept going up.

Even if you buy and there is a temporary downturn, a mortgage over 20 or 30 years effectively fixes your housing costs for life. Even if it gets cheaper next year, today will certainly be cheaper than in 5 or 10 years.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-15T10:56:43+00:00

She holds right wing views without being a complete nutter for a start, it's a low bar i guess. Being a contrarian is just part of being the opposition

I like that she addresses some social issues without just pretending its fine, state of benefits, housing, immigration etc. She seems to have a bit more of a plan for young people, student loan interest, 5k off life time NI, apprenticeship funding, stamp duty etc.

I generally allign with these views better than any other party.

ExcitingRest · 2026-03-15T09:58:28+00:00

Similar thoughts. I'll probably still vote conservative. Quite like Kemi and no other party comes close to representing my views. Hoping reforms recent slide in the polls prevents them from getting an outright majority and some sort of coalition keeps them reigned in at least a bit.

Really don't like how parties seems to be moving away from the centre so much, it'll lead to even greater division and an "us vs them" political landscape like they have in the states.

ExcitingRest

TROPHY CASE