tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685608788672533401.post6324586476233334360..comments2022-04-05T03:02:08.815-06:00Comments on Intern 101: Taking Initiative: a good question from a readerLulu Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14713133001416080918noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685608788672533401.post-84386287144238788612010-02-04T17:33:08.477-07:002010-02-04T17:33:08.477-07:00Dear Lulu,
I am the anonymous one who asked this ...Dear Lulu,<br /><br />I am the anonymous one who asked this question. Here is part of the article that I found containing those statistics: It was written by Gregory J. Scott. I just cut / pasted part of it below:<br /><br /><br />First to suffer, last to recover<br /><br />3 Comments<br /> <br /><br />By Gregory J. Scott <br /><br />// As their ranks of unemployed continue to grow, Downtown architects scramble to redefine their profession //<br /><br /><br />Alan D’Souza is one of the lucky ones. <br /><br />The day he received notice of his layoff from a St. Paul architecture firm back in November 2008, he already had a tentative job offer in hand. It wasn’t a design gig, exactly. But it was pretty close. The Weidt Group, a Minnetonka-based sustainable design consulting company with whom D’Souza had worked closely at his old firm, wanted to bring him on staff. D’Souza had been shifting his focus closer to sustainable design anyway, and he seemed a natural candidate for the Weidt Group, a leader in the field. The job appeared to be a sure thing.<br /><br />It took six months for the offer to materialize. <br /><br /> “They were interested, but they weren’t hiring immediately,” D’Souza remembers. “They could see that the profession across the board had been hit, and since they work mostly with architects, they were cautious about bringing on new people.” <br /><br />Still, a six-month stall in employment seems mild in a crisis that has many laid-off architects and designers wondering if they’ll ever return to work. <br /><br />According to the latest data available from the Department of Labor, employment at American architecture firms, which peaked last July at 224,500, had dropped to 184,600 by November. And many among those counted as “employed” have seen their hours reduced to part-time, their status changed to independent contractor or their salaries replaced by smaller hourly wages. Such measures make it difficult to pin down a precise unemployment percentage, but here in Minnesota, most industry watchers estimate joblessness to be between 40 and 60 percent. <br /><br />So unsettling is the unemployment situation that architecture, some say, has joined print media and the auto industry as a sector that must make dramatic changes if it is to survive. <br /><br />With the bulk of Minnesota architects concentrated in Downtown firms — the state chapter of the American Institute of Architects estimates that two-thirds of its members work in Minneapolis — the crisis has had a very visible impact on the core of the city. <br /><br />“The demand right now is very low,” said Jason Mehmen, an account manager at Aerotek, a local recruiting agency that staffs architects and engineers. “There is just so much uncertainty on the part of the firms. They’re scared to death to hire anyone, even if they do need people.”<br /><br />Every job vacancy triggers a flood of applications, Mehmen said. And sifting through hundreds of potentially irrelevant resumes makes hiring even less appealing to employers already jittery about taking on new talent. <br /><br /> “I’ve already had architecture firms say, ‘We’re not even going to post our jobs. We’re not even going to deal with it.’”<br /><br />Staffing agencies like his have grown even more important than ever, Mehmen says, in saving firms the hassle of filtering applicants. But they can also absorb a lot of the risk involved when a firm looks to hire on a part-time or contract basis. “If we employ someone, we provide their benefits, and we pay their unemployment insurance,” Mehmen said. “We offer candidates that security, but we also offer the firm the flexibility not to bring them directly onto payroll.” <br /><br />The problem, most experts agree, is the lending environment, which remains painfully frozen 18 months after the real estate market initially imploded. Banks aren’t taking any risks, developers are starved for financing, and with new construction stalled indefinitely, it’s impossible for architecture firms to look ahead to new projects. So tied to new construction is the architecture profession that it has tended to boom and bust along with the real estate market. <br /><br /><br />Reach Gregory J. Scott at gscott@mnpubs.com.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685608788672533401.post-90635583691046449942010-02-04T11:52:14.677-07:002010-02-04T11:52:14.677-07:00For those recently laid off - if you haven't s...For those recently laid off - if you haven't seen the 1/2 hour movie "Lemonade" it's definitely worth your time. It focuses on layoffs in the advertising industry, but the overall message is inspirational. <br /><br />Whether or not you decide to stay within architecture (and I agree, we need talented folks to reinforce and build the profession), the advice at 20:40 is helpful: <br /><br />"Don't be the person who's out there looking for a job - be the person out there doing something interesting." <br /><br />Find the movie on Hulu here: http://bit.ly/aYxu2nMark J. Hulme, LEED APhttp://archifilter.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7685608788672533401.post-81073798723105515062010-02-04T11:48:43.724-07:002010-02-04T11:48:43.724-07:00Out here in Portland Oregon we have been hit prett...Out here in Portland Oregon we have been hit pretty bad. I'd guess 25-40% unemployment in the city. Not to mention under employment. My office is a mix of full, 3/4, and half time, with several people on furlough for a month at least. We have also laid-off about 30% of the staff.<br /><br />There was ONE position in Portland advertised nationally last month on the AIA site (10 years experience, licensed, higher ed background) and it got 2000 resumes. There are only 1300 architects in the whole state!<br /><br />I am anxious for things to turn around, but we have not turned the corner out here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com