Hi all,

we’re coming over on the 1st June *YAY*

I have an internet based job so I’m not really concerned about getting employment for myself. The thing that worries me is that hubby is self-employed and if that doesn’t work out he’ll have to find employment elsewhere.

He started as self-employed due to the fact that he was made redundant from 3 consecutive jobs in the uk! (Yes the recession is bad here especially up north.)

What are employment opportunities like in and around Valencia? He’s a mechanic by trade but will do anything if it gets REALLY bad.

I just wondered if you guys had any input on the issue as neither hell nor high water will stop me from moving now!

Just incase you wondered his spanish vocabulary stretches to “Twenty Lambert & Butler por favor.” hehe.

Emma & Luke

good luck

Emma and Luke

It really is that bad If you look at “La Crisis” Posts it gets worse by the day…

Hotels are closing due too not many tourists…

Spain is the worst off in the whole of europe because the Government Decided to Invest in tourism instead of making Business’s.

In a Nut Shell….

5 Million Unemployed By August / September More at the end of the Year…

Spain is on its Knees Expats are moving back home… Doom and gloom… but if your hubby can do anything for work.. and learn the language “FAST” then he has a good chance…

2011 is when things here “Start” To get better…

down the road from me the hotel offers hotel room at 375 Euro a month ..... An Alicante hotel is offering hotel rooms at 375 ? a month as a way of beating the recession . The hotel on the front line at Albufereta in Alicante has offered the discount price since last month . The price comes for those who make a reservation for at least three months . Hotel sources say that there has been a 17% fall in tourism in the area , and their idea of offering 30 rooms long-term has already seen seven taken and another eight under offer . and the airport is down aswell , last year lot more flights . industry estate i work in like gost town , there been 2,000 layed of in the estate . Was on the Canary Islands few weeks ago and it dead there aswell .....
?La Crisis?

WOW.

Thank God I have a secure internet based job. Hope it gets better for you guys soon!

Emma & Luke

have you secure internet yet here ? ...can take long time to get via land line ....

and work here keep reading the news i put up ... 30,000 people sent cv for 800 jobs in elche .... Mondays news

4.5 million out work and mac calling it La Crisis ,

help is need , here

Hi Emma,

Just wanted to back up what Jurdy said, have you definitely sorted your internet connection and had the bandwidth tested?  As things vary hugely here.  I was promised a 10 meg connection, eventually told could have 3, and rarely achieve one full meg, its a challenge if your work depends on voip and vpn,

In a similar situation re other half, mine’s currently working for me which is far from ideal, but there is nothing else out there (we’re an hour down the coast from you),

Anyway one of you having secure employment is a huge advantage wherever you live, and he can use the time to get up to speed on the language,

Good luck with everything!

Maya

Hi all,

been assured by the landlords that we can get mobile broadband via a dongle.

I do hope the connection is ok though…

anyone had a dongle before? I’ve had one in the UK but obviously haven’t experienced Spanish connectivity.

Thanks

Emma & Luke

Emma&Luke;,

for a bit of good news for your ‘hubby’. With markets the way they are, fewer people are looking into buying new cars. Down here in Fuengirola, and I would assume in Valencia, mechanics in general seem to be doing quite well in this crisis. As long has he can learn spanish, he might have less trouble finding work than you think.

Re mobile broadband, I would investigate contracts carefully as I believe costs can be related to data usage - so if you have high demand, eg pulling stuff over a vpn for work, it could get very expensive.  We’ve only experienced a fixed line so can’t comment directly but it would be worth posting in the technology forms as I am sure someone could advise you better.  Do check out the Wimax option, all round the cities and coast is pretty well covered I believe,

Maya

With the current crisis take everybodies promises with a pinch of salt. a landlord will promise anything just to get you in, i doubt he/she would be willing to sign anything official and compensate you if you cannot get internet.

Spain really only provided jobs to expats if

1) Spaniards didn`t/coudn`t do the job.

2) Expats can`t speak Spanish so employ brits.

From my experience pre crisis Spaniards would employ you if you could speak Spanish fluently, post crisis, no chance, there are too many unemployed.

The Spanish used to ship over Morrocans to pick the strawberry harvest, as it`s hard work for low money. The Morrocans have been refused work this year, as Spaniards are now desbrate and willing to do it.

That pretty much sums up Spain, even cleaning jobs done by South Americans are being pushed out in favour of Spaniards.

No Spaniard is goin to use a brit mechanic if there is a Spanish one, you`d have to be very cheap and very good to beat the competition.

BuenosDiasPet - 22 May 2009 05:30 PM

Re mobile broadband, I would investigate contracts carefully as I believe costs can be related to data usage - so if you have high demand, eg pulling stuff over a vpn for work, it could get very expensive.  We’ve only experienced a fixed line so can’t comment directly but it would be worth posting in the technology forms as I am sure someone could advise you better.  Do check out the Wimax option, all round the cities and coast is pretty well covered I believe,

Maya

Hi, I was wondering what packages are available over there - I hope to carry out some work via VPN so I need at least 5meg. Is this a very hit and miss thing? I’ve seen advertised by vodafone 12mb packages, but they cost quite a bit per month.

More info on bandwidth reliability would be very useful to me indeed.

Thanks, Steve

Santi - 25 May 2009 02:17 PM

With the current crisis take everybodies promises with a pinch of salt. a landlord will promise anything just to get you in, i doubt he/she would be willing to sign anything official and compensate you if you cannot get internet.

Spain really only provided jobs to expats if

1) Spaniards didn`t/coudn`t do the job.

2) Expats can`t speak Spanish so employ brits.

From my experience pre crisis Spaniards would employ you if you could speak Spanish fluently, post crisis, no chance, there are too many unemployed.

The Spanish used to ship over Morrocans to pick the strawberry harvest, as it`s hard work for low money. The Morrocans have been refused work this year, as Spaniards are now desbrate and willing to do it.

That pretty much sums up Spain, even cleaning jobs done by South Americans are being pushed out in favour of Spaniards.

No Spaniard is goin to use a brit mechanic if there is a Spanish one, you`d have to be very cheap and very good to beat the competition.

Well Put… This is basically as it is… Spain Is Officially “Closed” Until Crisis is sorted….

I will say things are picking up “Slightly” on English Jobs… People are looking for Work In Gibraltar (UK Expats) as there is “Some” jobs going Rent is Cheap…. And GOING DOWN!

Spain is getting cheaper as its getting further into deflation. Today Spain posted 3rd month in deflation may reached 0.8%.

This will cause prices to drop further.

But will make recovery longer, Spain already predicted to not only be the worse hit in the EU but also the slowest to recover.

On a more positive note, I’ve not struggled for work yet and am still getting new enquiries. I have been here for five years already though, speak the language fairly well and have made quite a lot of Spanish friends and contacts within the scope of my work. You would have to shoot me first to get me back to the UK!!

I’m one of those that believes there’s always work opportunities if you’re willing to look for them and I’ve actually received a couple of contracts from Spaniards in an urbanisation I’ve been working in recently for some fellow British expats.

If you’ve work that you can do from home that’s definate, then that’s great. If your partner is prepared to integrate and learn the language, in order to improve his work prospects, even better.

Internet connections vary throughout Spain and I would say that if the property your renting is in a town, suck it and see when you get there. In most towns the infrastructure is sufficient enough for good broadband access and there’s also plenty of WiFi hotspots around.

I live in a rural part of Granada, in a valley, with no fixed land-line available. Up to now I’ve been reliant upon sitting up the hill from my house in a deckchair amongst the olives with a laptop and a Movistar 3G modem dongle. There I get speeds of up to a steady 3mbps. In the house though, I had only been getting a sluggish 50kbps through GPRS. In the last two weeks and much to my surprise, I suddenly started getting 1mbps 3.5G connection. Speaking to my Spanish neighbour I was told that the local antenna has been upgraded and the signal strength has been boosted significantly. Obviously as nice as sitting amongst the olives is, working at my desktop PC is preferable.

So, it’s not all doom and gloom. Moving to Spain was the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ve more stable work than I had in the UK, the cost of living overall is much less and the majority of the locals are fantastic.

Good luck with your move. I’m sure you’ll enjoy your “new life” in Spain. 😊