Posted by
air_med in another
thread
"Bushy.
Like you I would have been a surprise if there were not many applicants lining up for a RFDS gig, but sadly it is true.
I know for a fact that one RFDS base put an ad out a few weeks ago and only got 2 replies, did the same thing then next week and got none.
Wally hit the nail on the head, they are taking single engine time guys with low multi time, outback and remote experience is low, but are prepared to work with and help the new one's out. The thing that does make us angry is that, having a doctor in the back and a nurse reading a book on along night home and the wage bill for the 2 of them is 300,000, yet the poor guy up the front is just getting 52-55000. You would think with a country in high boom, that all RFDS bases, start hitting the goverment for more money to get extra equipment, able for bases to put on more pilots and staff, but no, they have to scrap the bottom of the barrell to make ends meet."
"
THE NEW PARADISE FOR WORKERS
The Australian Editoral Friday 13 October 2006
Just as the 1990' was the decade that broke the back of inflation, so the first decade of the 21st century will go down as the time when the job market turned sharply in favour of labour. Yesterday's numbers confirmed unemployment at lows not seen since the optimism of the early Whitlam government. A generation of stubbornly high unemployment is giving way to chronic labour shortages, particularly for skilled labour. The frenzied demand for labour sparked by the China-driven resources boom is part of the equation. But we are now at the point where the supply of labour is taking a demographic step down, as the number of young job entrants falls at one end and the baby boomers move into retirement at the other. In short, the structural balance of power has moved in favour if labour. Australia has become the the sort of workers paradise that the pioneers of the frontier nation celebrated in the late 19th century.
..."
How about this one by
Bendo from this
thread
"I got out of the industry after Ansett - too many pilots available at my level (twin IFR Charter) and wise, I thought, to let the dust settle.
I kept instructing about 300 hours/year and I am working in the mining industry earning over $2,000/week for my 40 hours. Yes it is dirty and yes there is shift work... but it is also quite technical in parts and reasonably challenging.
With bu99er-all experience or qualifications I am earning close to that which the Mining Engineers are paid, and I go home each night without worrying about work. It is true for many professions - an old girlfriend is an Elec. Engineer and she designed & certified much of the lighting around the Olympic site in Sydney... AND YET she is paid half the salary of the tradesmen who installed it.
Is there a shortage of experienced pilots? Well after 5 years of applications I am suddenly getting offers of interview with those Regionals I always wanted to fly for. There is nothing about my application that has become more competitive - what other reason than a shortage of experienced drivers? 
Will I uproot my family and leave the town that has become home (not to mention the reMUNeration), merely to drive turboprops, on the gamble that it might lead further up the tree? 
... go from $120k in the country to $45k in Sydney?"
Flying just aint sexy any more. The industry (generalisation) has none nothing to help its cause.
Bushy, your intuition about the aviation world may have come from a long career in the business, and I respect that. However, the next 30 years are not going to be a repetition of the last. Things are going to be very different.