Latest job losses figures (to April 2010) available

[trainedchimp]

You don't need to list absolutely everything - that's a popular excuse and a rubbish one at that (it might actually have been true in 1995, but wasn't when I joined best part of ten years ago), you need enough detail of recent stuff to be able to show the level you have worked to and give an idea of how long you've been there - it's the examples of the work you provide and the references that count for more. :face-confused:

Not seeing any benefit to membership of the IfA is, unfortunately and much to my regret, not something I'd class as a bad excuse. It's a view I can understand, even if I don't agree with it. That's middle age and cynicism I suppose.

[Unitof1]

ahh references. so we have worked out that there are about 30 mifas who might have dug against the 2829 who dont dig but dont ever get laid off, made redubdent, fired, tell them where to stuff it-were did you find your reference

sorry i am getting very low as currently I am trying to earn a living by opposing eias found in the newspaper. My top tip is dont let them onto your land- so far no takers so earning a living is somewhat virtual

[Jack]

There are two types of statistics.

1) lies

and

2) Damn lies

[Dinosaur]

Anyone who goes to the effort of trying to produce them is either

a) justifying their job, or

b) trying to hide something

- just look at the government :face-stir:

[Jack]

'76% of statistics are made up on the spur of the moment'
-Spike Milligan

[Unitof1]

the other 24% have to find a different type of moment

[BAJR]

Lets remeber what the thread was about. And although I think it was interesting to see the figures that Uo1 brought out, there is a wider discussion to be had.

Can we move on from the statistics? cheerss

[trainedchimp]

I suppose what this does is at least confirm most people's general feeling that things are still pretty tight, but at least not getting much worse, even if the promised happy days are still just a distant promise in the eyes of the tenders and recruitment managers, though friends in consultancy suggest that they're very busy, so things may start to trickle through.

There's some fluctuation caused by a small number of very big jobs, which you'd expect in commercial digging. It's been like that in all the units I've worked where one or two bigger jobs account for a scarily proportion of turnover. But that's the reason why archaeology has such a hire'em and fire'em employment profile. I think a lot of medium-sized units bucking the trend have done so off the back of a couple of big jobs, while a couple with really bad results have just missed out one or two opportunities. It's watching the general trend (which looks alarmingly steady for the last year or so) that will give us any real idea. The really big and really small units seem to be a lot more stable, and it's those in the middle who seem to have had the worst of it. Then again, I don't know whether we'd ever hear of the one-and two man bands going under, and I don't have many sole trader friends...

What really strikes me is that even compared to the last time I was out of work for long in 1999, and except for the really depressing bit in late 2008 when everyone seemed to be closing up and working three-day weeks, there's a lot more work out there. Which seems to suggest that contract archaeology can regard itself as established, if still shaky.