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Tag: architects

Boom time for construction? The view from Eeyore’s house

Boom time for construction? The view from Eeyore’s house

I feel for pessimists in construction at the moment. It’s really tough times for doom mongers. Every survey is running high, some touting record-breaking numbers. Meanwhile, forecasters are suggesting we are on the threshold of a phase of growth well above the long-term average. My God. It’s boom time. How can you talk that down? Well okay let me have a go. Not because I’m a pessimist (despite the rumours). Things are looking better. And I take a simple view…

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Things seem to be getting worse slower for architects and engineers

Things seem to be getting worse slower for architects and engineers

Encouraging perhaps, the latest statistics on the prospects and performance for architects and engineers seem to be of the “not so negative” variety. The December data from the Office for National Statistics’ Turnover and Orders in Production and Services Industries show what could be regarded as real growth for architectural and engineering services in 2011. Last year the sector delivered in cash terms £43.3 billion of turnover compared with £41.4 billion in 2010. This was a rise of about 4.5% and…

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Architects and engineers workload flatlines in cash terms – suggesting pressure on jobs and pay

Architects and engineers workload flatlines in cash terms – suggesting pressure on jobs and pay

The latest figures from the Turnover and Orders in Production and Services Industries data suggest that output in current prices from architects and engineers is flatlining. That translates into a real-terms fall when we take account of inflation. The graph shows the broad picture. And some will take comfort from the fact that the workload is not still in decline. Overseas work has tended to account for about 10% or so of the work and we will have to wait…

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We’ll be getting off relatively lightly if the construction workforce drops by 400,000

We’ll be getting off relatively lightly if the construction workforce drops by 400,000

The latest forecast from the Construction Skills Network (CSN) suggests that the current recession in construction will have led to a drop of about 400,000 in the number employed by the industry once job shedding ends in early 2011. This would mean a drop of about 15% in the workforce. That appears at first sight pretty savage. But set against the previous recession this would be getting off relatively lightly, with a shorter and less severe period of job cutting.

Number snacks: 1

Number snacks: 1

The number of architects, planners and surveyors signing off the claimant count in the six months to October 2009 to head abroad was 985. This compares with 80 in same period two years earlier. Source: National Statistics (Nomis: www.nomisweb.co.uk).  Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI).