Job Losses in Archaeology

[BAJR Host]

In that case... welcome aboard.

The interesting thing is the infrastructure projects and the continuation of house building around the central belt. that seems to be helping... and of course a rise in public archaeology.

Architects are reproting similar job losses, so it is not clear yet wheich way the wind might blow.

"Gie's a Job.."
Prof. 'Dolly' Parton

[voice of reason]

[I'm not sure it covers the matter of whether different regions are being more badly affected, however, which would be interesting to know.
[/quote]


But in these days of 'pan-regional' operations for many companies, I yhink such figures will be almost impossible to separate and wouldn't actually give an idea of where the downturn is actually located - eg someone's office may be in Borchester but most of their work has been in Royston Vaizey on the other side of the country which has now disappeared, the location of job losses in the survey would have to be given as Borchester.

[BAJR Host]

Unless of course the question was asked..
in what regions
percentage of work



"Gie's a Job.."
Prof. 'Dolly' Parton

[drpeterwardle]

Gorilla said

"maybe we're missing the point... any job loss is a sad thing"

Yes any job loss is a said thing but the point of these statistics is about overall trends not the individuals. There point is that it gives more infomation to all the people who have to make these decisions. In a sense it tells us what has happened over the last two-seven years and in particular the last three months.

Peter

[Curator Kid]

quote:Originally posted by BAJR Host

Architects are reproting similar job losses, so it is not clear yet wheich way the wind might blow.

Maybe the IFA should do a survey of Curators to find out where things are heading? It's probably about 3-4 months from a curatorial recommendation of whether or not a development proposal requires archaeological work, to that work coming about. Perhaps a survey asking nationally how the level of planning consultations and consequent PPG16 archaeological recommendations is holding up, would supply some pointers as to whether or not the next few months for the field archaeologists and the units are likely to be getting better, remaining stable or be as dire as we suspect?

[RedEarth]

quote:Originally posted by voice of reason

[I'm not sure it covers the matter of whether different regions are being more badly affected, however, which would be interesting to know.

But in these days of 'pan-regional' operations for many companies, I yhink such figures will be almost impossible to separate and wouldn't actually give an idea of where the downturn is actually located - eg someone's office may be in Borchester but most of their work has been in Royston Vaizey on the other side of the country which has now disappeared, the location of job losses in the survey would have to be given as Borchester.
[/quote]


Tis a good point (although surely the curator for the county in which Royston Vaisey is located wouldn't allow anyone from outside to do any work - this is local archaeology for local people!). One way might be to ask curators how much work there has been, given some sensible criteria such as size of project (number of staff, length of time etc).

This sort of information might be of practical use to people trying to find jobs - if Borchester has no work there is perhaps less point squandering your meagre budget sending CV's there when Royston might be a better bet (apart from the aforementioned difficulties), rather than what could be perceived as doom-laden statistics. Perhaps it could be IfA step 2.

Looks like Curator Kid got in with the same idea 13 seconds before me, curses! Still great minds think alike and all that...

[drpeterwardle]

Curator kid is right but the info is already there in the form of the down turn in the number of planning applications. These were compiled by the Association of Planning Officers and the down turn is such that planning officers are being made redundant.

The key is as ever the consultants as we see things many many months before an application is applied for or the LPA contacted. What are the redundancys in consultancys

Peter

[kevin wooldridge]

There was an interesting article in the online version of the Independent this morning talking to different persons who have lost their jobs recently. One was an architect. Which initally shocked me...until I read on and discovered for the past few years he has worked for a practice specialising in high value renovations (eg swimming pools in your basement) and he even admitted that they solved most problems by throwing money at it rather than 'designing' an answer.

I am glad that someone has raised the subject of whether archaeology might be recessing differently in different regions. Personally, I wasn't particularly shocked to hear of redundancies in the UK last autumn after hearing of problems earlier in the year in Ireland. It seemed to me then that some of our current problems were shouting out to be addressed much earlier than some folk would have you believe. To that extent I wonder if both the survey and our perceptions of the crisis aren't also being slightly 'Little Britain'-ish. I mean it does seem to me over the past few years that many of the recently unemployed from UK archaeology are probably resting at home in Krakow r or Norkjopping rather than in Kidderminster or Nottingham. And for that reason shouldn't the survey be asking non-UK nationals who practice archaeology in the UK how the recession is affecting them as well. I also note that at least 3 of the 6 biggest contracting organisations have an Irish 'field component' and wonder if the figures for staffing cuts recognise this.



With peace and consolation hath dismist, And calm of mind all passion spent...

[Curator Kid]

quote:Originally posted by drpeterwardle

Curator kid is right but the info is already there in the form of the down turn in the number of planning applications. These were compiled by the Association of Planning Officers and the down turn is such that planning officers are being made redundant.

A downturn in plain numbers of planning applications is not necessarily indicative though - it's whether or not there is an accompanying diminishing of archaeological work, which is dependant on the type of planning applications, and where the sites are located. In January 2008 I had 32 planning consultations arrive on my desk, but only 6 of them warranted an archaeological response. I know the amount of applications is down so far this year, but when I've looked at everything, if 6 of my January 2009 consultations generate a response, that means that there's technically no change from last year and the archaeological work's holding up. I doubt it will hold up by the way, given the amount of applications I've received so far this month, but it would be a worthwhile survey I would've thought.

[historic building]

Well where I work there has been a large drop off in applications for between 2-10 housing units. The massive stuff is still continuing as are some listed building conversions into flats. For where things are located in my patch this does mean that most of the large scale applications will be generating work.

I would broadly say that 50% of applications, for large-scale projects get permission for their first scheme. A proportion of the others will be amended or will be permitted on appeal.

The problem we are having is that many developers are not proceeding to implementation of their schemes once consent has been granted. In one case there is a particularly large site where the buildings have been demolished and the lawyers from that council are now arguing with the developer?s lawyers whether this is actually legal implementation. This is a growing problem of the developer doing a minor part of the works or applying to vary conditions to stretch the process out and avoid spending too much now.

This is not to mention the problems with bank funding and undischarged archaeological conditions that many developers are claiming they are having...