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[The squirrel]

Source  - Building Mag 18.09.2009

You do not have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to guess that the pressure on wages would be heading south but I was shocked with the falls reported compared with 12 months ago, for example:

NW - Finishing Foreman down 66%
Yorks - Sub - agent down 40%
NW - Site agent down 32%
UK wide - Contractors QS down 11%

Are these a true reflection in your experience?

[porybomy73]

Yes.  Been there.  Done that.  Worse thing Ive put myself through because Im an idiot.  Go me.

[Nick]

How depressing are those figures? While my pay hasn't gone south, it has remained firmly where it is for the past 18 months or so...

Do you reckon this could get any worse? Hope not!!!

[matt_jagger445]

I worked on a few sites over the past 3 years.

Plastering (skimming only rate)

2007 £3 a sq meter (amazing)
2008 £2.10 a sq meter (hard work, 10 hour days for a good wage)
2009 £1.50 a sq meter this coupled with agents only allowing a man to skim one wall, before moving to another block of flats or to some reveals with not even a meter in it, it's getting silly.

and talk of £00.90p a sq meter in 2010

decorators! I know one that is on £17ph on the same site as the lads getting £1.50 a meter.

However the supplying employment agencies are still charging around the £8 to £9 pounds a square meter for a plasterer. Thats just not right for anyone. And the thing is, if you don't like it tough! theres a que three weeks long of lads desperate to just get on.

[Nick]

Man, that is criminal! How did we get into this situation?? 

[Derek]

I cant comment on trade wages but I can confirm that companies are paying considerably less on salaries. I even had an instance where a guy who was made redundant was offered a job to come back 12 months later for a third less on his annual salary. he knocked it back off course.

I think that it's only natural that companies will take advantage of the current employment market but some are really taking the mickey!