Well Mifta, you've already shattered his ego and self esteem by describing him as a 'bog standard' welder. Spread that about and he'll not even get a guvy job. All I can say is that a good friend of mine, a brickie, was made redundant about 5 months ago and has never looked back. He has not stopped work since. He never even got to 'sign on' and now employs a labourer. So if there is a chance of retraining ant the local job centre then bricklaying is not such a bad choice.
But descibe him as a quality tradesman in future.