14th November 2013, 08:33 PM
(This post was last modified: 14th November 2013, 08:35 PM by Martin Locock.)
yes, it is consistent that most archaeologists are not new graduates but are in it for thelong haul. In the 2002-2003 survey they looked at varaiation across the sub-sctors and not surprisingly there was more a skew towards young, and temp contracts, in digging units, but actually the pattern is still more middle-aged than you might expect. There is a slight confounding factor in the stats: because employment doesn't start til graduation (and possibly MA completion) for most young people, this means that the 20-29 slice will always be more like a 22-29 or 25-29 slice and therefore would be lower than 30-39 or 40-49 even if there were the same numbers for each year-age.
I think that any low-pay debate has to take on board that there are mid-career, and late-career, archaeologists who are still occupying fairly junior roles, and we can't just shrug and say that a couple of lean years at the start never did us any harm.
I think that any low-pay debate has to take on board that there are mid-career, and late-career, archaeologists who are still occupying fairly junior roles, and we can't just shrug and say that a couple of lean years at the start never did us any harm.