Really interesting if you compare it to 2006 numbers (when Gensler was #1 last)

• Gensler 2011: $764.08M #1
• Gensler 2006: $500.20 #1

Whoa! They increased their profits by 50% since the peak of the last boom. Good on them!

Let's look at SOM next:

• SOM 2011: $255.00 #10
• SOM 2006: $251.20 #6

Almost identical profits but but they lost their positioning by quite a few spots. In fact, back in 2006, 12 companies made $100m+. In 2011 21 companies made $100m+. And we are still in supposed recession. 150th place for both years has made $15m. So the big boys are not exactly growing at the expense of others.

So what is going on? The profits are through the roof, yet the employment is abysmal as ever. Has the inflation been that high in the last 5 years? The numbers are very odd.

Gensler has hired 1200 people and opened up 7 new offices since January 2011.  And they are still hiring in various cities and new offices are being planned.

SOM was hiring a bunch of people last summer and fall but I also recently heard that they had contracted again.

In general, employment has stagnated across the country, while corporate profits have actually increased.  You hear about this all the time.  Corporations are taking full advantage of the increases in productivity afforded them by technological advancement, as well as the inherent fear present in pretty much everyone who worked through this recession (gotta work really hard and keep this job... there are no other ones out there).  

Less architects on staff to do the same amount of work for salaries that have stagnated or actually decreased = massive profits.  This is really the plight of all american workers if were honest.  Its incredible for corporations, not so great for people actually trying to earn a living.

First of all the rankings are a list of firms by total revenue, not profits. I hope you understand the difference. Probably one more area where our schools failed us.

Second, the article points out that much of the growth is from foreign economies. Want a better job, move to were the work is. Better yet, start your own business and let us know how it goes.

The plight of the american worker is that it's easier to point the finger at someone else rather than look in the mirror.  Employees are just as greedy as their bosses, as their bosses, as their bosses. If we're honest.

Geez, did someone shit in your coffee this morning wurdan?

Yes, the ranking are based on revenues. Profits are whatever the accountant says is the optimal number to disclose (and thus completely irrelevant in discussion of  non-publically traded companies).

Even if all the growth is in the foreign economies, the assumption here is that most of the labor is performed domestically.

But yes, let's all look at the frigging mirror and point. and blame. Personal responsibility herpty-derpty because I overcompensate my inability to understand complex systems with sheer smugness and taking my coffee with shit in it.

International is stronger than domestic. Most big firms are hiring. My company added 400+ staff in the last 18 months.

In recessions, big firms and small firms tend to do well. It's the mid-sized firms that are under the most pressure these days. They don't have economies of scale or broad reach, but their overhead is much higher than their smaller, nimbler competitors.

I dunno about that last statement.  AECOM's Architectural division (also known as PDD) slashed up to 1200 people firmwide since January 2011.
 

A lot of that is attributed to some MAJOR fuckups in management and accounting along some VERY questionable (at best) appointment during 2009/2010.  I literally saw clients' jaws drop when a person would be introduced as a "Principal" or "Vice President."  It was THAT scary.  They also fired many of the long-time head designers so that some of the more junior level principals could take the helm.

And while they were so busy squabling over petty corporate firms, firms that had been struggling during the recession were bouncing back and gobbling up much of their market sector works.

As many experienced it became quite a shitty place to work too.  Once phrase why:  Annual Christmas-Eve Layoffs!

AECOM is a publicly-traded company (LOL). That means it's just biding its time until bureaucratic ossification causes it to seize up and die.

There are only about three firms on this list who will actually have any bearing on DESIGN in, say, a hundred years, so to quantify this list as "design" firms is ludicrous.  A more accurate appraisal would be to state that these firms control the output of CDs  which are being built in this particular year.   

As Truman Capote said of Jack Kerouac, "That's not writing, that's typing."

Big Flockin' YAWN.

Justin - yeah because you are just the best designer there is in the entire profession and you know everything about design and every thing about each one of these firms.

Gimme a fucking break.

JAM: "There are only about three firms on this list who will actually have any bearing on DESIGN in, say, a hundred years, ..."

Once again pointing out -- in spades -- the absolute disconnect between "what the market seeks" and "what some elements of the profession want to deliver"

what my company is #2 now....

"what my company is #2 now...."

AECOM - where literacy be optional at.

I was at AECOM for a while - about 4 years.  It was good at first, but then I hated it.  A lot of ugly ugly corporate politics when all the mergers started - it was a clash of civilizations really.

Boy, I can't even describe to you how diluted some of the people are there.

actually i intern at one of those merged companies who are now "an AECOM company"

where are firms like Morphosis, Gehry etc?

you call them 'boutiques', accesskb. 

10 billion in architectural design service revenue in total for 2012... not bad to think of it if one can open and run a successful firm.  I must work to get my slice of the pie. ;)