I have an Upholstery student who has studied with me here at London Met Uni (the old london college of furniture) doing a day per week for the last four years here in London England, and he is looking to move over to san diego with his soon to be wife. I was wondering whats it like for work in the area? His main experience is English Domestic Upholstery , horsehair stuff and stitch style + some foam but as a vw camper enthusiast has has tackled some of them too.
Any advise i could pass on to him would be great .
Many thanks in advance
Alex
The last I knew the job market was hit pretty hard in CA. I know they have a very high unemployment rate. We had a stitcher on here who was based there and I believe she said the industry had taken a nose dive.
San Diego, because of their large population of boats is Marine heaven for upholsterers.
I will say that San Diego is over the top expensive for everything. Housing, fuel, groceries, you name it. We spent part of the winter there in 2006 and I could not believe the prices on everything, not to mention their screwball taxes and laws. :) But it is one of the most gorgeous parts of the country with some of the best weather you will find in the USA. This is why it is so bloody expensive to live there.
Tell him to bring a big pile of money with him. If he takes a job there make sure the salary matches the living costs of that area.
I love San Diego and was stationed there in the Marine Corps. We also had a blast there during the winter of 06. But I would never live there because of the costs of everything.
If he wants an ocean side place to live he may want to consider Miami. They are constantly looking for upholsterers there.
JMHO,
Chris
Quote from: alge on March 16, 2011, 06:05:17 am
I have an Upholstery student who has studied with me here at London Met Uni (the old london college of furniture) doing a day per week for the last four years here in London England, and he is looking to move over to san diego with his soon to be wife. I was wondering whats it like for work in the area? His main experience is English Domestic Upholstery , horsehair stuff and stitch style + some foam but as a vw camper enthusiast has has tackled some of them too.
Any advise i could pass on to him would be great .
Many thanks in advance
Alex
I will tell you there is a shop down there that does good work and is very reasonable. I do a lot of Norcal work with my Bimmer upholstery kits and some Socal. He gets a lot of my Socal business when it comes to BMW's, and customers just want to drop their car off. He can flip a whole BMW front and rear interior in a day in leather and he charges $1,300.00 installed. Not sure were he gets his leather but I know he does a good deal of BMW work. It is Jim's Upholstery.
Kevin
You might find this helpful: http://www.thehogring.com/2011/03/14/the-upholstery-industry-2011-occupational-outlook-handbook/
It's the U.S. Government's 2011 Occupational Outlook Handbook for the field of upholstery. While it doesn't focus specifically on the San Diego market, it does provide insight into what the market is like overall.
Best of luck!
Hello,
As my name says, I live and have my business in San Diego.
It is a great place to live. Business for my self has been very good the past 2 years. But I have heard of a couple businesses going out of business over the past year and a half.
I do not have any customers who have used Horse hair when redoing their furniture. People here usually use foam with dacron.
Just today I got a call from a lady who is moving from Seattle, WA to San Diego looking for work.
It might take him a while to find a job, but in due time he should beable to find one. Timming is everything.