My thai wife has just recently moved to the uk, we have a new baby so she has limited her chances of a job to just evening and weekends as she looks after our child in the daytime whilst I work.

She has applied for lots of jobs and dropped her cv into lots of restaurants/pubs and even tried cleaning jobs for part time work.

I feel as she has no uk qualifications or references this is why she is finding it tough to get work.

Has anyone else partner had this problem finding work?

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Where are you? Location is all in the UK.

Since the crash and recession there was a dearth of part time work when a significant proportion of indigenous folk returned to the work sector in order to bolster family finances being squeezed by Osborne's austerity measures. Up North jobs were much sought after, as indeed in pockets of the West Midlands, Wales and other less advantaged economic areas of Britain. With the rise in zero hour contracts part time work has become even harder to find.

The Sourh/Sourh East is different of course and most Thai would have no difficulty in finding work of some nature or other.

Unfortunately, your wife is having the same experience as many other people; both indigenous and immigrant.

My wife had to return to Thailand three years ago due to her father's terminal illness. Her then employer, Primark, wouldn't give her any compassionate leave and told her she would have to leave the job and reapply for it when she returned to the UK.

When she did return, they told her that they had no vacancies and it took her over 6 months to find another job; and that was with an eleven year, checkable work history in the UK and excellent references.

Last year I started to look for a new job as my then employer's business took a down turn and my hours dropped dramatically (I was hourly paid); it took me until Feb of this yea to find a new one. That's with a checkable work history in the UK of over 40 years and, again, an excellent reference from my employer.

We live in the South East. The job situation here, especially for unskilled or semi skilled workers, isn't as rosy as some would think!

I'm afraid the only answer is for her to persevere.

She can register with the government's Universal Jobmatch even if she is not claiming Jobseeker's allowance. Registering with private employment agencies is also a good way of finding suitable work.

How is her English; written as well as spoken?

When she first arrived 14 years ago my wife could speak English well, but couldn't read or write it. This, obviously, hampered her finding work. So she enrolled on an English course at our local college; even though there was no written (or speaking) English test for ILR or citizenship in those days.

The best source of immediate work possibilities are within the Thai community itself for a Thai person.

Even the unskilled jobs are harder to find than most people realize, and many of these jobs are only for a few hours a week, not many company seem to want to employ for 40 hr a week.

What are her qualifications/previous work record, her written and spoken English is going to be crucial, i am not sure but care work is very short staffed, they simply can't get the staff. Probably depends on what part of the country you are.in. Keep trying