Designers See Downturn in Employment

 

In Minnesota, most architecture industry watchers estimate joblessness to be between 40 and 60 percent. - Photo Courtesy of Rhinoceros Report

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. 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. The figures for landscape architects are likely just as dismal, in part because of the slump in the housing market. ?EUR??,,????'?????<