The latest compensation survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has found that in recent years, as demand for design services has increased and unemployment has fallen to historic lows, average pay for architecture staff has increased by over $10,000.

The report credits a 40-percent increase in non-residential construction spending since 2017 with the gains, as well. This economic activity has helped boost pay for architectural workers at a rate 2.5-times the rate of wage growth for all other professional staff in the United States, according to an AIA press release. 

That's the good news. The not-so-good news is that the last time this level of wage growth took place, in 1999 and again in 2008, was "either just prior to, or as the economy and the construction sectors were entering national economic downturns," the organization writes.

The report, completed biannually, is the latest signal from the AIA that the economic outlook for the next few years is less than ideal. In recent months, architectural billings and inquiries have been more or less flat. Those softening numbers, when combined with increasingly disruptive trade battles between President Trump and other global leaders, have fueled fears of a potential recession. 

To boot, the increased costs from tariffs imposed on imported goods by the Trump administration have begun to "dampen" economic growth projections, according to the AIA's chief economist, Kermit Baker. In a recent economic forecast, for example, Baker projects continued short-term growth with the potential for a "broader slowdown" for certain sectors, and potentially, the economy overall, by mid-2020.