In despair. Husband is taking ages to find a role

He needs to be looking at any job right now. Because at the moment he's earning nothing. Don't you think? There are jobs on indeed for 350 pounds a day in my area (West of Scotland). Some people might sneer at that but it's 350 pounds more than he's earning just now

He could wait a year for the job he wants. Or more

I agree- it’s not at all the same applying for chief technical officer in for example a large bank or big pharma company to applying to Tescos - one size does not fit all - I used to work opposite a headhunter in pharma ( lovely lady) - she used to have hour long conversations with people frequently , even when they were not looking just to touch base and when roles came up she instantly had a mental short list of 6 or 7 who might be persuaded to move or who were actively seeking, pre qualified and fitted the bill - Can I suggest too that if people are high earning and very much reliant on one wage then at that point invest in yourself with a bit of ASU insurance ( accident, sickness, unemployment) because it may well come in handy .

Indeed is only for low-paying jobs.

For higher-earning jobs, you need plenty of networking - my last few jobs were never advertised anywhere. As a broad rule, the more senior (and high-paying) the role, the longer the process takes.

And on places like indeed you can put a cover letter in too. Sorry. Let's stop using the excuse that he needs to spend hours a day looking for work. He doesn't. He's got kids and other stuff that needs doing and he needs to be looking for any job at this point in time

You need to start taking serious action to reduce your outgoings right now. Contact your mortgage company and ask for a mortgage holiday. Cancel all subscriptions. Cut back on everything else. It’s a really tough job market and it’s not at all surprising he doesn’t have any interviews yet, it takes a lot of time to properly do each application and it’s definitely worth doing a few properly rather than firing out hundreds of poor applications that will simply be screened out by AI before even getting seen by a human. Having a few initial chats is a good place to be at this stage.

The “I can’t be distracted” is nonsense though. He needs to be pulling his weight at home, and he also needs to apply for any temporary work going to make your savings stretch as far as possible.

You should not be applying for most professional jobs in a matter of minutes. A cover letter tailored to the job is needed for starters. Yes you might do loads of applications but you’re unlikely to be successful this way.

Yes you can. If you have a CV linked to an account like indeed you can apply for a job in minutes - what do you think single people with babies do when they get made redundant?

It took DH nearly 9 months to find a new job, he took a few weeks sorting out his CV, then had weeks where he was spending 5 hours a day looking for jobs, applying for jobs, speaking to recruiters, doing research on companies etc etc. He got very little traction for a good few months and then suddenly ended up in final round interviews for 3-4 really good roles. Applied for lots of jobs locally, pubs, cafes, retail, temp roles, but didn’t even get a reply back from most of them, let alone an interview.

He did do a good few hours of exercise per day however he also picked up the bulk of the housework, cooked dinner, cleaned etc etc.

Apologies for multiple posts, internet issues where I am!!

Yep - this is what a lot of people don’t get - Reeves doubled the allowance for employers NI exemption- so most employing 2 up to 4 people will be paying nil or very low employers NI or have 3 or 4 fairly high earners- anyone self employed and is set up Asa ltd company and have an employee and use payroll to pay yourself -will likely pay NIL

with regards to the Tory’s, they knew the chickens would come home to roost, hence letting in legally all the extra 3rd world immigration in their final 2 years and fleecing the system for all they could

• they didn’t want to be left holding the poisoned chalice. They genuinely didn’t want to be in power.

and for anyone thinking of voting Reform and the likelihood of an insurance based health system - you are only as good as the people you have working in it resource wise - I genuinely think some people think this would be an odd£75 a month or so each extra and better care. Just so you know in Germany which has insurance system it’s around 380 euros a month ( each) for standard and pensioners still pay. Employers pay 50% but that’s if you are employed- it’s still close on 400 euros for a couple if you both work and are employed - if 2% on employers NI is enough to cause issues here , then paying half the healthcare is sure as hell going to put plenty of businesses under. So unless Farage has invented the magic formula where neither individuals or business are significantly out of pocket it’s going to cause big issues - it may be that kid companies will be able to offset but ultimately that affects both cash flow initially and then corporation tax due and no Germans don’t pay less tax/Ni than here to balance it off , still slightly more.

Yep - this is what a lot of people don’t get - Reeves doubled the allowance for employers NI exemption- so most employing 2 up to 4 people will be paying nil or very low employers NI or have 3 or 4 fairly high earners- anyone self employed and is set up Asa ltd company and have an employee and use payroll to pay yourself -will likely pay NIL

with regards to the Tory’s, they knew the chickens would come home to roost, hence letting in legally all the extra 3rd world immigration in their final 2 years and fleecing the system for all they could

• they didn’t want to be left holding the poisoned chalice. They genuinely didn’t want to be in power.

and for anyone thinking of voting Reform and the likelihood of an insurance based health system - you are only as good as the people you have working in it resource wise - I genuinely think some people think this would be an odd£75 a month or so each extra and better care. Just so you know in Germany which has insurance system it’s around 380 euros a month ( each) for standard and pensioners still pay. Employers pay 50% but that’s if you are employed- it’s still close on 400 euros for a couple if you both work and are employed - if 2% on employers NI is enough to cause issues here , then paying half the healthcare is sure as hell going to put plenty of businesses under. So unless Farage has invented the magic formula where neither individuals or business are significantly out of pocket it’s going to cause big issues - it may be that kid companies will be able to offset but ultimately that affects both cash flow initially and then corporation tax due and no Germans don’t pay less tax/Ni than here to balance it off , still slightly more.

Yep - this is what a lot of people don’t get - Reeves doubled the allowance for employers NI exemption- so most employing 2 up to 4 people will be paying nil or very low employers NI or have 3 or 4 fairly high earners- anyone self employed and is set up Asa ltd company and have an employee and use payroll to pay yourself -will likely pay NIL

with regards to the Tory’s, they knew the chickens would come home to roost, hence letting in legally all the extra 3rd world immigration in their final 2 years and fleecing the system for all they could

• they didn’t want to be left holding the poisoned chalice. They genuinely didn’t want to be in power.

and for anyone thinking of voting Reform and the likelihood of an insurance based health system - you are only as good as the people you have working in it resource wise - I genuinely think some people think this would be an odd£75 a month or so each extra and better care. Just so you know in Germany which has insurance system it’s around 380 euros a month ( each) for standard and pensioners still pay. Employers pay 50% but that’s if you are employed- it’s still close on 400 euros for a couple if you both work and are employed - if 2% on employers NI is enough to cause issues here , then paying half the healthcare is sure as hell going to put plenty of businesses under. So unless Farage has invented the magic formula where neither individuals or business are significantly out of pocket it’s going to cause big issues - it may be that kid companies will be able to offset but ultimately that affects both cash flow initially and then corporation tax due and no Germans don’t pay less tax/Ni than here to balance it off , still slightly more.

Bless you, I'm an editor too and only got my current role through an old employer via LinkedIn. It’s certainly not a good job market at all ATM and AI sucks with regards to taking away professional jobs from those with decades of experience.

I hope you can find some work eventually. It's definitely disheartening when you can't.😢🧡

I think you need to change your expectations, the job market is awful right now. and job applications are very time consuming, you can't look after a baby full time whilst applying for jobs.

She's carrying all the housework and childcare while he swims and bakes bread and picks stuff up from Facebook marketplace

Same old. Why do we make excuses for men like this?

Ok so he shouldnt be spending all his time swimming and baking bread but redundancy impacts you mentally. The baking and swimming probably helps him to stay mentally well and this is important otherwise his chance of getting a job will be a lot lower - less motivated and less able to perform in an interview. So I disagree with everyone saying he shouldn’t be doing this.

(that doesn’t mean he should get out of any childcare though)

I have every sympathy for him but he needs to either find something temporary - delivery driver, uber, etc and/or stop messing around swimming and baking and take on the childcare. He can apply for jobs as well as these things, not instead of.

I agree with this. Plus it’s a v tough job market at the moment.

If your mate is on UC he should have at least a proportion of his rent paid and he could have applied for an advance until his first UC payment came in

This :

Key Principles from Money Saving Expert (Martin Lewis):

Prioritize High Interest: Debt interest (e.g., 20%+ APR) almost always outweighs interest earned on savings (e.g., 5%), making paying debt a better "return".

Keep an Emergency Fund: Do not wipe out your savings completely. Keep a small amount to cover emergencies, ensuring you don't have to borrow again on a credit card.

"Stoozing" (0% Cards): If your debt is on a 0% interest offer, keep your money in a high-interest savings account, pay the minimum card repayment, and pay off the full balance just before the 0% period ends.

Stop Borrowing: Before using savings, make sure you can stop using the card, or you will create a debt spiral.

It makes little sense to borrow from the credit card to be able to pay mortgage with savings. Far better to ask for a mortgage holiday or a loan in worst case. Not use credit cards unless 0%. Minimum payment will cause high interest to be charged on the entire balance.

I've not read the full thread but @saminamama it's exam season coming up soon, can he apply to be an invigilator?

Do the recruiting agencies he's signed up with also offer temping work? Always worth signing up although someone up thread said they haven't been offered much.

@Lilmrsac I'm presuming as the OP has said the credit card debt is 0% that they are paying the recommended monthly amount and hopefully a bit more and is getting interest on what money she has in savings especially if in an ISA . So not paying interest on debt but getting interest on savings. That's how I have interpreted it.

My mate has been unemployed for over 6 months, he still has no job and owes me 2 months rent (he asked for a loan) and i've still only recieved £250 back, that was in February.

It's a good job i'm patient but it is starting to get my goat, so I understand your frustration, it seems like he is doing nothing to get employment.

The job market is poor at the moment. Your husband seems to be spending time chatting to people who 'may be able to help him find work', but actually don't ever offer anything tangible. I agree with someone else, in that your husband needs to tailor his CV to each specific role he's applying for. Could you afford to have a professional CV writer to look over his CV? Yes, it will cost money, but it may equally pay for itself if he secures a role.

You need a discussion with your husband about exactly what he's doing to find work. Chatting to contacts is one thing, but pointless chats that don't materialise into interviews aren't worth his time. Has he joined multiple job agencies? If his job is niche, how realistic is he being, in finding work within that field? What skills does he have that are transferable? The reality is, he may need to take any job, in order to bring money into the family.

No one is job searching all day, every day, that's not feasible! Therefore, he needs to take on some of the domestic chores to help you out. You can't afford to send your children to nursery at the moment, so he's going to need to look after your children, whilst you work. Or you're going to need to work full-time, whilst the children attend nursery 2-3 days per week, so your husband can job hunt. The other days, he will need to look after the children.

It's been 1 month!! Unless you work in an industry where "knowing people" gets you straight into a job and you live somewhere within commuting distance of a big city (so multiple companies) the chances of having multiple interviews lined up that are a good fit for him and in the right location are slim, especially at the moment. The higher up you go the fewer jobs there are anyway. If he is doing a full job application, tailoring his CV it's like a full-time job applying. It isn't like those online applications where you upload 1 CV, say what you are looking for and hit send to apply for 100's of jobs, if he's applying for individual roles it's a lot of work.

Have you thought about applying for jobs yourself to up your own income? Maybe you'll see how tough the jobs market is!

Yes the job market is bad but he really should have something by 18 months. He needs to look for anything to get money in. As I said above they could potentially claim UC if they pay off some credit card debt. Savings of under 16k would qualify them. They wouldn't get the mortgage paid but they would get a personal allowance. Money for both kids and UC pay a proportion of childcare as well

That's the first thing people should do when they are made redundant - find out what their entitlement to benefits is

He could potentially claim JSA contribution based -because it's non means tested. He just needs to have paid enough class 1 NI contributions in the previous 2-3 years to qualify. It's only just over 84 pounds a week but it's something.