Ex-pat looking to come home

[mainasia]

Nice to see all your stories here. I've been in East Asia for best part of a decade, looking at making the move back for a while now. It's true that there is no real recession in many countries or cities at the moment, they didn't have the credit bubble so their property market and banks have had very little problems, just stock markets went down (now recovering) and some layoffs but even then not so much like Ireland/UK/US. They are pulling out of the downturn already in much of Asia, once the US stabilises and starts to recover the world should be mostly out of this by end of this year (keep your chins up, the signs are there already in many countries..this will put a bottom on Ireland's recession).

I have head that if you go to any mall in the US they are still busy shopping away and recession is not so obvious..well in most areas anyway.

I hear people saying high taxes but isn't Ireland's tax regime still pretty lax compared to most western countries? I have seen that doctor's only get taxed 33% on wages of 120,000 euro..that sounds low to me. There is a tax now on the lowest income earners but still not much. I think it feels worse for many Irish because of high debt levels. It's also true that Irish wages are significantly higher than almost all European countries, the take home pay is higher if you have a job than almost any European country! The southern European countries pay salaries that are equivalent or less than developing countries in Asia.


Stuff in Ireland costs a lot but even that is starting to come down with deflation. To be honest I'd be more concerned with crime after the issue of getting a job! I like the advice of firing CVs off to the companies directly, I will start to take this route now!

 

[spursfan1234]

agreed - its hurting at the moment with taxes being raised but we were a low tax economy. that dosent make it any easier though. i was in the US a few weeks ago and to be honest found very very little signs of a recession.

 

[drivetown]

i was in the US a few weeks ago and to be honest found very very little signs of a recession.

Were you only over on a holiday?

I live in New Jersey which is one of the wealthiest states in the US and considered one of the least affected by the recession.

Believe me there are signs of the recession everywhere. So many people have lost their jobs, houses being repossesed, businesses closing left, right and centre, no new cars being bought - dealers are doing everything but give them away free etc. The property market is stagnant and down between 20% - 40% in this area since peak (maybe not as bad as Dublin or other parts of the US but still well down). And if you watch certain TV channels you will see wall to wall recession talk 24/7.

You will still see plenty of people out shopping. This is for a number of reasons - in general taxes have not increased here recently so people with jobs have the same income and the stores have massive sales. Also, the average American has 10 credit cards!

Another over 500,000 jobs were lost in April. Much was made of this in the media because it's down from the 700,000 the previous month but the government created 100,000 jobs with the launch of the 2010 census. So while it's a bit better, it's nothing to write home about.

I have friends in Dublin who tell me it's still hard to get bookings in the restaurants around Grafton Street and that BTs is still mobbed at the weekends!!!!