At Alltype Engineering, south of Perth, the welders are working - but they are few and far between.

The business invested in new plant and equipment during the boom years, machinery that now lies idle.

A cavernous shed that is still in use has a handful of tradesmen on the tools.

"I've been here when the workers were almost falling over each to do the work and now it's half empty," says James England, WA manager of the Australian Steel Institute.

State-wide, he says there would be about 500 metal fabrication shops in the same position.

Looking for work and desperately trying to find their next job.

Alltype Engineering expanded during the boom, but now the cavernous factory is largely empty. ( ABC: Glyn Jones )

A few years ago employers in the steel industry couldn't get enough workers, as skilled tradespeople, lured by the big money on offer, took up jobs on resources construction projects in the state's north-west.

Now they can't get enough work.

Take a drive around the industrial belts in the outer-Perth suburbs of Henderson or Bibra Lake and you'll see shuttered factory after shuttered factory.

It's a similar story in the CBD and inner-city district of West Perth, where the offices and shopfronts are littered with sign after sign reading "For Lease".

After a shortage of office space during the boom, for lease signs dominate Perth commercial districts. ( ABC: Glyn Jones )

During the boom years, companies struggled to find office space here and would-be entrepreneurs literally worked out of cafes.

Now the bust is plain to see.

Cafes and restaurants are feeling the flow-on effects.

Joe's Bakery in West Perth used to have a thriving trade providing catering to the so-called "junior miners" which had offices in the district. Most of the junior miners are gone now.

David Buhagiar, who runs the cafe and eatery, says it's surviving because, unlike some competitors, it has prices in line with the new economic reality.

But after spending money on a new fit out during the boom, the going is tough.

"We're struggling," he says.

All our neighbours have vanished. There were 30 food shops; they're closing by the week.

The cost of an espresso in the city or along the terraces of Perth is a potent expression of deflation in a recessed economy. In the boom, paying $5 or $6 a cup wasn't uncommon.

Now it's easy to find a decent cup for $3.50.

Sorry, this video has expired The two speed economy, the other way round ( Stephen Long )

At 5.7 per cent, the unemployment rate in Western Australia doesn't sound terribly high, but it has almost doubled from its low point, when there was close to full employment.

In some areas it is staggering.

Balga and Girrawheen in Perth's north have always been down-at-heel, but the jobless rates in these struggle-street suburbs fell well into the single-digits in the good times.

Now the adult unemployment rate is more than 25 per cent.

Girrawheen resident John Sesay earned good money as a bricklayer during the boom - until his back buckled from the work.

After two years unemployed, he's grateful to have found work as an Uber driver, loves the social contact, and takes pride in the sense of service it provides.

Living in a community where one in four adults is out of work, he counts himself lucky.

But the money? "There is no comparison," he says.

Working six hours a day - the most he can tolerate with his bad back - Mr Sesay says he will bring in between $60 and $150, depending on demand.

What I used to make before doing my bricklaying, brick paving, job, I could make three, four times what I would be getting with Uber. But I'm happy.

Uber driving has been a lifeline for a lot of workers who used to enjoy the high-income life of the mining boom.

According to a survey Uber conducted, more than one-in-five Uber drivers in WA used to work in the mining and resources economy.

There are now just a handful of workers left at Alltype Engineering in Perth. ( ABC: Glyn Jones )

It's a sobering thought for residents in NSW and Victoria, states where the economy is booming, that not long ago WA's economy was growing far stronger still.

But the boom was driven by the kind of resources rally that happens once in a lifetime and the soaring property prices that went with it.

The price of real estate is now going backwards in WA while in the south-eastern states it continues to soar.

How long before the eastern seaboard goes from boom to bust?