Well I would think that the AIA would be keeping track of that. But then again, since they are laying off people just as fast as the offices, the person responsible for keeping track of this is probably on unemployment.

I would say 30-40% overall

The last published information said 16%. That was about a month ago or so. Can't remember where I saw it though, sorry.

While the national unemployment for architects would be a useful barometer, I am much interested in the percentages regionally. For me that is Chicago, and I know its not good...

^should be much "more" interested^

The 16% number was from the AIA's economist Kermit Baker from June If I recall correctly, talking about the first quarter. The article also said the North East had been hit the hardest ( architects, not overall economy) followed by the south west and midwest. The southeast was flat as was the Pacific Northwest.

Also - is the 16% reflective of Licensed architects, AIA memebrs in the survey or the architectural industry? I know McGraw Hill had published the number of construction workers nationwide was about 20% unemployed. Probably greater if you count the part time, 2 guys and a truck small time operations doing home repairs.

From an e-mail I received recently from CareerConnectio:

"A current estimate of the unemployment rate among DFW architecture and design professionals is over 45%."

The federal government website for architects AND engineers says the October unemployment rate is only 6.6 percent for those fields combined!

archie, i think i saw that stat in the latest issue of record and was floored. talk about being detached from reality!

6.6 percent? Who do they think they are kidding?

you'd think it's the least AIA can do. the billings index is just something else. And I'd be curious how underemployment factors in with all the furloughs and reduced pay.

I haven't logged into archinect in some time, but I just spent a couple hours reading this entire discussion. (well, much of it). I now have to add myself to the unemployed list. I was let go last March and haven't even had a nibble since then, despite the fact that I spend two or more hours a day online going through all the ads for senior this and senior that. And I AM a senior. This last July I would have been with one of the letter firms 25 years.

What infuriates me is the electronic resume submission process that confers total anonymity on the employers. You spend two hours on a cover letter, customize your resume one more time and hit submit. No response. No auto reply. Nothing.

Or, the ad has the firm name. I reponded to a pretty good ad that fit just about right. I knew who they are and have a friend in that firm. No reponse. Two weeks later, they run the ad again. Guess there were no worthwhile candidates in the 300 resumes they received. So..... get 300 more!!!! Just maybe no senior wants to work for $20K?

I love the ads that want proficiency in seven or eight software packages (grasshopper anyone?), speak five languages, can do design, shop drawings, specs, answer phones, client promotions, international travel, write contracts for 50 story buildings, all with only five years of experience. M.Arch required. LEED, registration and AIA helpful. Include PDF samples of work. File size no larger than 1.5m, please. Include salary history.

Know what! The guy interviewing you, if you get that far, most likely doesn't have those qualifications. And no boss in his (or her) right mind is going to hire someone who outshines them anyway.

Of my 25 years at ***, only the last five or so have been in the PDF era. Most of my portfolio is on paper. I can only show it face to face. But the system is set up to avoid face to face confrontation at all costs.

Ugh!

When you are young, at least you can wait on tables or even change careers. Those doors are closed to me. I am an architect with maybe four or five buildings still in me. Someone give me the chance to let them out and then I can go in peace.

Be careful Mike, a lot of the folks around here can speak 5 langauges, know grasshopper have an MARCH, wait tables at night already and will do it for $20,000 just so they can be involved in at least one buildign in their career. They might start mass emailing you for the job lead!

I though Obama found all those out of work architects new jobs within the 650,000 newly created positions.

Anybody get one of those?

when architects start designing bridges, then perhaps i'll have one of them jobbies.

q:) Then why are they still unemployed Mr Employer?

a:) It's the wrong five languages :-(

The only reliable source I found was that the BLS had it at 17%, but that might only include the actual percentage of arch. recieving unemployment. Not architects that don't qualify, or people forced to take other jobs. Note, that I have not found a site to support this , its just more heresay thru a google search.

Quite clearly the AIA needs to stop eating so many d***s and get on it. Not that knowing the % of arch. unemployed would make anything better...its only something we need to be aware of. If there was some sort of regional statistics available then maybe there would be some migration and mixing out of architects across the country.

Maybe if politicians became aware of professions with drastic unemployment levels than there would be some sort of career bailout. HA! no

A quick search yielded this from the U.K, albeit outdated (March):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/20/architecture-job-losses-construction-unemployment


"Office of National Statistics figures released this week show that between February 2008 and February 2009 the number of architects claiming benefits rose by 760% from 150 to 1,290 - the biggest increase among recorded professions.

The second biggest increase was among architectural technologists and town planning technicians.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) said the figures came as no surprise and estimated that the level of unemployment and under-employment among its members was at least 30% higher than official figures."

Economy is effectively 16-17% unemployed as a nation, so I can't imagine architecture being less than the average.

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.

the agc pegs construction unemployment at roughly 18%, although that's only what they can sift from the 'official' unemployment numbers.

look, if the feds and states can't get an accurate read on the number of unemployed, do you really think the aia can? i don't expect them to waste resources trying to peg the number exactly, i expect them to push congress for federal spending on buildings instead of highways.

unofficially, the whisper numbers i hear is that we're close to 40%, if you take into account unemployment and underemployment. lot of this is relative, though. do you count, for example, someone who is a licensed architect but who has switched career fields? or who has taken a job with another type of company with the hopes of jumping back to architecture? how in the world would you find those people anyway?

focus less on the numbers and watch where the bank loan rates are heading. until private construction begins picking back up in earnest, we're going to have quite a big 'readjustment' to the entire field.

what kind of infantile bs is this? You complain bitterly about the AIA not knowing precisely a number the Bureau of Labor Statistics can only estimate roughly, even with all of their resources ... then you admit that knowing the answer won't change anything.

what's the point of posting something so obviously inane?

Since official BLS U-3 unemployment is over 10% and BLS U-6 unemployment (reduced hours people/exhausted unemployment people/discouraged people) is hovering around 18% or more I would imagine unemployment in architecture is over 20%.

Full disclousure, I don't fit into the U-3 stats but do fit in the U-6.

From what I know of major firms around my town is that most are down 30% + since their 2007 peaks. Local AIA chapter "estimates" 40% locally.

Given that people are leaving the profession it'll be tough to accurately determine the unemployment amongst the profession. Also, fresh grads that haven't even got their foot in the door, do you count them too? All we know is that the market is saturated with labor but still very dry with work.

That comment about the AIA was something that I blurted out through the keyboard. Then after realizing how inappropriate it was, I decided not to delete it...that's how much I respect them right now.

Governmental incompetence makes it hardly surprising that detailed unemployment organized by profession is nonexistent. On the other hand, the AIA has direct access to a large amount of architects (licensed or not) ....think: professional work places, Schools, etc.; and aren't they trusted to keep tabs on our profession, ie average salary...it seems that unemployment levels would be a big factor relevant to the profession. I am not angry because this information isn't being compiled now-but rather I am furious that they it was not collected all along. For a profession which rides on cyclical waves of expansion and contraction wouldn't it be obvious to determine % of unemployed as a factor of where one is riding in that wave.

Just because the answer does not 'change anything', does not mean worthless. If the drastic unemployment levels of architects, construction workers etc. became apparent than at least society (politicians) would sympathize with our predicament. Realistic 'numbers' could be a trump card to push for recession-related architecture legislation. WPA? During the great depression architects were employed by the government to travel the country and document historic structures...that program is still in existence, and easily hire more architects if the funding was available. Isn't the AIA supposed to push for more stimulus money aimed at architects, the more dire they make our situation out to be the better the chances of getting heard. Maybe they could at least get unemployment benefit extentions for the architects out of work for more than a year...what does the AIA do anyway?

I'd say it's closer to 35-40% overall.

I saw an article from AIA national around... July that suggested national 20%... will see if I can track that down again. Would not be surprised if it was closer to 30-40% in my region. Anecdotally, of my friends in the field, I currently know more without a job than with. That's... amazing to me.

Until we see a big hiring sweep, we are going to slowly decreasing...

Offices are doing more with fewer people

I am so sorry to hear so many talented and educated people wanting to leave the profession, like tumbleweed...
I am reminded of how Kurt Vonnegut became a writer and not an architect because of his father disillusionment with architecture, after not having able to find work as an architect during the great Depression.

in my apartment right now, it's at 100%

hey tumbleweed...which career are you now pursuing in lieu of architecture?

@tumbleweed--- i feel your pain. i finished a post-pro degree in '08 and was able to find a job- sort of blissfully unaware of any impending doom at the time. but i was just laid off last week. i claim unemployment so i guess i am one of the "officially" unemployed. i was actually able to complete my IDP before getting laid off- and now i might take some exams- but the study materials are so damn expensive, it's ridiculous. and very discouraging.

@mikejarosz--- i met an architect in my last firm whose interview was a drive around DC to literally "show" his portfolio. he had already built so many buildings in the city that his portfolio was real, and not a bunch of hypothetical mess of renderings or sketches in PDF or bound in a glossy book. they laid him off in the first round of layoffs last year. i felt that we had lost a lot when he was let go...
it's so incredible to me how many in my previous firm were quietly let go. those who were "forced into retirement" about 10 years (sometimes a bit more) away from real retirement. they weren't exactly spring chickens, but they were too far away from calling it quits. i mean what exactly are people supposed to do in that situation?! collect unemployment for a year, and then wait for that magical age to collect from their retirement funds??

@w4000--- i just wonder how long can those firms- who are doing more work with less people- keep up without being completely burned out? i know for me i had been burned out for quite sometime after surviving several rounds of layoffs- and my coworkers and i had been doing the work of several people. at some point you are so tired you sort of hope for a way out.

+i:

You really understood my subliminal message. I could stuff my portfolio with nothing but pix by Ezra Stoller, Heydrich Blessing etc. I even have actual prints signed by Ezra Stoller. But I would never show them in an interview because of their off putting nature. I really feel I have to tone it down to get hired in this market.

I was not alone when the ax came. One Woman (a curtain wall specialist) lamented it was probably the end of her career. One of the best detailers I have ever known was cut and is still searching. There were many others. And we were the fourth wave.