Thread: Consumer Confidence Low?

"If I was God for a week/month/year..." Moved to "Nothing to do with woodwork" as its own thread

If I was God for a week/month/year...

Originally Posted by DomAU

I think that a distinction needs to be made between "politicians' and 'public servants'. Public servants in many areas are paid significantly less than the equivalent engineers, project managers, lawyers etc in industry and pay rises, workloads, and conditions have been trending far worse vs industry in a lot of areas. I work as an engineering manager for Defence and I could easily make 50-100% more working in the private sector or as a contractor back to Defence. My area has only seen a 1 % pay rise each year for the last 6 years (so a real pay cut of about 8% vs inflation) vs well over 2-3% in private industry over the same time. During that time my team's workload has significantly increased and i have lost 30% of my staff.

Cheers, Dom

I was specifically referring to public servants, the politicians are a whole other train wreck. Your experience does not mirror mine nor the official numbers. The public service overall is paid more than private now by a big margin.

I am a mech eng and my last job (6 years ago now) was with the queensland railroads. The pay rises were breathtaking. Yes there are a few headline salaries in private companies but an awful lot of engineering staff were being paid peanuts. Your situation might be the exception but I think if you actually applied and saw what jobs you were offered in the private sector and what they think they can get away offering you might be surprised.

The difference is so much worse in admin though. Overdressed cretins who think they are worth 70 and 80k...

Originally Posted by damian

I was specifically referring to public servants, the politicians are a whole other train wreck. Your experience does not mirror mine nor the official numbers. The public service overall is paid more than private now by a big margin.

I am a mech eng and my last job (6 years ago now) was with the queensland railroads. The pay rises were breathtaking. Yes there are a few headline salaries in private companies but an awful lot of engineering staff were being paid peanuts. Your situation might be the exception but I think if you actually applied and saw what jobs you were offered in the private sector and what they think they can get away offering you might be surprised.

The difference is so much worse in admin though. Overdressed cretins who think they are worth 70 and 80k...

Maybe it's the difference between federal and state. Vic state government is paying good money for engineers in public transport and infrastructure projects and a heap of guys have jumped ship. Public servant engineers working for Defence under the Federal government are paid very poorly in comparison to both the state and private sector. The last couple of times we went out to recruit we couldn't attract a single engineer from external industry for about 20-30 positions each time due to a simply uncompetitive pay level.

I guess it's very dependent on the area within the public service. I will likely jump ship soon - can't tolerate it any more.

Cheers, Dom

I used to work for csiro. Pay there wasn't great but it was 20+ years ago.

Funny place. Best job I've ever had at one site, transfered, one of the worst jobs I've ever had.

From what I've heard it's all stuffed now.

Getting back to the point of the OP, I've just come back from the Sculptors Queensland 50th anniversary exhibition.

In total there were 82 indoor pieces and 28 outdoor. From the total of 110 all up, 7 were sold none of which were priced over $1000.

WOW, just absolutely #king wow, barely scraping past 6% sales. An event such as this in Queensland, 30% would have been excellent, 20% good, 10% bad. 6%, wow, that's just a shocker.

Personally, I now have to say that the question, Consumer Confidence Low?, has been answered unequivocally.

Feckit

When times are tough it is the luxury items that are the first to suffer so I have to agree with you and such a sale is certainly an indicator. However, I would ask that others also give indications such as this where they come upon them. A single instance is not of course a fair sample. Some contributors to this thread, including myself, have already given opinions that the sales are sliding, but there is nothing quite like tangible evidence.

Regards
Paul