UK unemployment rises as most new jobs go to citizens of other EU state

Generali

kabayiri wrote: »

If I'm employing someone/some people to work on my house I don't want those who might mess up and then disappear off to some far flung place.

I personally will pay a little more for local people with a solid track record. It sounds like those sort of people are thin on the ground in the likes of London though.

It depends what you want doing and what you want to pay.

If you want a project manager and want to pay her a couple of grand a week you will find plenty of highly skilled, highly motivated indigenous and foreign staff very happy to work for you.

If you want someone to clean your offices for minimum wage, or less, good luck.

ruggedtoast

kabayiri wrote: »

If I'm employing someone/some people to work on my house I don't want those who might mess up and then disappear off to some far flung place.

I personally will pay a little more for local people with a solid track record. It sounds like those sort of people are thin on the ground in the likes of London though.

You are going up the skill levels there though, where people are prepared to pay more for better work and after care.

There have always been cheap rubbish plumbers and builders and expensive good ones. The Polish influx increases your chance of getting a cheap good one, but not by enough to put any decent British plumbers out of business.

Although I have family in those industries who complain about them in general, I can't see how Poles have hurt their individual businesses at all, as they have always had more work than they knew what to do with. They would be better off hiring a few and expanding IMO but thats another issue.

Its people who are basically unskilled who expect the world to provide them a job in the town they grew up in, because thats where they live, who seem to be the most angry about them.

kabayiri

ruggedtoast wrote: »

...
There have always been cheap rubbish plumbers and builders and expensive good ones. The Polish influx increases your chance of getting a cheap good one, but not by enough to put any decent British plumbers out of business.
...

Yep, and the bad ones gain a reputation. People are very open when it comes to sharing bad experiences.

Some Polish builders may be very good, but until they build up a reputation it's a risk I'm not willing to take.

It's the same in IT. There are some great Indian IT contractors who I will happily provide references for, but equally there's some dross.

I'm basically contradicting myself in outlook, because I like the idea of free movement of labour, but I can understand that it isn't some kind of free lunch - it carries risk.