Profiling the Profession - its that time again!

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Archaeology Labour Market Intelligence: Profiling the Profession 2007–08 is a project designed to gather data about archaeological employment in the United Kingdom.

This information produced will contribute to the development of the profession both at the level of individual organisations and from a wider strategic viewpoint.

Comprehensive archaeological labour market intelligence has been gathered and analysed twice before, in 1997–98 and 2002–03, and this data has been extensively referenced by archaeological employers and organisations in the sector. The results of both surveys are available online at

http://www.archaeologists.net/profession.html

Profiling the Profession 2007–08 will provide archaeologists and their employers with up-to-date information about working in this sector.

Every organisation that employs or commissions archaeologists and others who work with the historic environment in the UK is invited to contribute to this project, including those who are self-employed. As this research will address the whole of the archaeological profession, it will include volunteers (unpaid staff) as well as those in paid employment.

You may receive a copy of this questionnaire addressed to yourself individually; if so, and you were working on a self-employed basis on the survey ‘census’ date of 13 August 2007, please complete the questionnaire as a self-employed person. When answering as self-employed, please treat questions about ‘the organisation’ as being about yourself as a business – and in part 2, which is about post profiles, please enter information about yourself as an employee, entering your taxable income – ie your annual turnover less all business expenses – as your gross salary. If you are both part time self-employed and part time employed, you should fill in a copy for yourself and also ensure that you are included by your employing organisation. If you do not receive a copy of the questionnaire, but you are self-employed, please contact Rachel Edwards, the project consultant, at lmi@archaeologists.net in order to be added to the distribution list and sent a copy.

If you are in employment, please check that your employer has received a copy, and that they are completing it with the details of all staff – including all of those on short-term, temporary or ‘casual’ (zero hours) contracts who were working for the organisation on 13 August 2007.
The more replies that the survey gets, the more accurate a picture can be drawn of the current state of archaeological employment in the UK.
You will notice that questionnaires are anonymous, and only identified by a code number. Specific organisations or individuals will not be identifiable in any publication of the project results. A full archive of all the information received and a full copy of the database used will be deposited with the Archaeology Data Service, but the entries in the archive and any published information will only be identified by the region of the UK where the organisation (or individual) providing the data is based and what type of organisation that is. It will be impossible to connect the data to the organisation or individual that provided it.
The results of the survey will be launched at the IFA Annual Conference for Archaeologists, in Swansea, 18–20 March 2008. The results will be published, both conventionally and electronically, and summaries will also be presented in other relevant publications. Paper copies of the final report will be sent to all organisations that have returned questionnaires.


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