Despite having applied for over a hundred vacancies, I had my first interview for a job a couple of months ago, as a proof reader for a company who provide services nationwide for people who are about to marry in a small rural Perthshire town - except that they didn't really need a proof reader, they needed a copy writer. The job was advertised as having a salary of £1400 per month except that in the interview I was told in a very matter of fact way that the salary was national minimum wage, i.e. £6.08 per hour for a copy writer!
When asked if I had any questions, I asked if there was any scope for doing any graphic design work (the company has several websites and relies heavily on printed materials) and I was told that all their design and web work was done in India. I looked around me and realised that the only people employed in this 'Scottish' business whose feet were on Scottish Tarmac were those who were necessary to present a Scottish public image, the manager, the few people who answered the phones and one person who would write the copy for their publications and on their websites. Everybody else was in India. And so effectively, this 'Scottish' business was acting as a funnel for money out of the country. And the newly weds it catered for were, in effect, financing their own flailing.
This was an eye opening moment for me. I have observed the migration of jobs in manufacturing and services and naively never expected graphic design to follow suit.
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