The Unemployment Rate For Landscape Architects/Designers

[Trace One]

These are the kind of salaries you get in so-called  ‘right-to-work’ states, altho Houston is an extreme example.. ..

 

[Alan Ray, RLA]

Don’t worry, ASLA will come to your rescue!

Just like they always have…..

[Tosh K]

plenty of jobs in CE Arch surveying?  where do you live?  I know more folks looking for work in those fields than LAs on the east coast (note that there are a lot more CivEs and Archs out there, so the job listing/prospective may be worse).

[Boilerplater]

RE Craig and Tosh’s postings – I was thinking the same thing!  One civil firm that I worked for in Las Vegas completely closed their civil department there and last I heard it has yet to be re-established.  Lots of civil firms are barely hanging on and/or have shrunk dramatically.  Lots of architects are barely hanging on as well.  I see some environmental science job postings which mostly seem to be field positions for getting samples of soil and water, most likely old fuel stations with contaminated soil.  You might be able to snag one of those jobs with a couple of additional classes.  You probably had Geology and Soils, right?  That seems to cover most of what they want.

[Keith]

For anyone who does decide to work overseas, keep in mind that if the s**t hits the fan like in mauibob’s friend’s story, you will come back to a barren wasteland of LA job opportunites with no chance for unemployment benefits.  Double edge sword straight up the pooper.  It happened to me.

[Clayton Munson]

Recent architecture grads are 13.9%.  I’m sure LA’s are far off that.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/04/news/economy/unemployment_college_major/

[landplanner]

This is already old and recycled news and as Jason R, put it so succiently, in the “duh” category.

 

[landplanner]

Hey Keith, your ass must be near hemorraging by now. Just so you know, or don’t want to know,

I have been exactly where you seem to describe yourself now. I took a leave of absence frome overseas to see if I could find a job here back in the States and try to see if a relationship I left here had any longevity to it. Both were hugely mistaken determinations, more heart than head.

I am back overseas as a direct result of both, the first more influential than the latter. By now you have heard the good along with the bad about today’s job report. Some of the highest job generation on the non-farm side (professional or thereabouts) since 2009. Trouble is ….. a lot of it was temporary and seasonal, and a lot of people have just frankly given up and withdrawn, and are not even statistically verifiable. Upshot, the real unemployment rate (U-6) is depressingly huge’ and that includes us and every other development dependent design profession.

So I am staying overseas not because I want to, but because I believe in not giving up on my massive investment of time, energy and achievement in the profession and I also need to survive,

and maybe, just maybe even thrive.

 

If I design a Hello Kitty Park and it gets built, I am going to send Russell a free day pass.  It seems he is wound up a little too tight and could use the release.

I don’t exactly what you have been through or are now going through, but I can certainly know I have can relate strongly, even in an impersonal and detached manner.  I tried every which way but loose to redefine and reposition myself here in the states in order to increase my attractiveness to the broader profession and I have a huge amount to offer. Apart from a few short term assignments, nothing with legs and velocity was sent my way.

Meanwhile, I will wait it out in probably the last region of the world right now with anything resembling a thriving economy teetering on the verge of going over the falls at anytime.

You do not even want to consider the global implications of that possibility.

 

I wish you well on whatever survival path you chose.

 

[Alan Ray, RLA]

…loved the Hendrix quote.

[landplanner]

This is why I am avoiding getting any sharp and unwanted blade placed in any of my bodily

orifices. Most of you will not want to read this, but the cold hard facts are exactly that.

Overlook the momentary forth of economic cheerleading, the trough is incredibly deep and the

 way out is too long to even fathom right now.

 

http://www.unionofunemployed.com/blog/recent-news/summary-of-u-s-real-unemployment-december-2011/

[Jason T. Radice]

Something similar to this was actually in the NY Slimes a few weeks backs from one of their guys. You know if they admit it in there, it ain’t rosey. Problem is, so many people just gave up looking for work…they are no longer counted. They are not the 99%, they are the 99 Weekers. Plus, the number of actual ‘available jobs’ counted has been drastically reduced over time, so the percentage of ‘available’ jobs filled, of course, has gone up, which reduces the unemployment rate. That, and 42k of the jobs they counted for this last round of numbers were temp jobs in the ‘delivery/courier’ category. Cannot trust the BLS numbers because they are told how to report the numbers to deliver the best numbers possible. Even Wall Street wasn’t fooled and the DJIA closed DOWN the day the report was released (Friday, January 6, 2012). Thanks for the post…bookmarked it.

[landplanner]

Jason:

 

I just saw that “delivery/courier” aberration this morning, If one drills down a bit deeper, then they find convincing anecdotal evidence that this “rosey” reading of last months jobs report is way, way overly optimistic.

Numbers and statistics being what they are, they can be interpreted, shaped and bent depending on the bias of the analysis.

Here are some graphs, courtesy of Calculated Risk, that get updated periodically. I have

been a fan of Calculated Risk for several years now and am convinced they are as close to objective and fair as any of the economic and finance blogs out there.

These graphs give a very clear picture of where we are at and how long it will take to even claw our way back to peak employment (2007).

 

View at the risk of further damaging your tepid optimistic outlook. Time to go back to graduate school for that MBA or MLA ? I think not.

http://www.crgraphs.com/2011/10/employment-graphs.html

[Leslie B Wagle]

There is another number which I think is called the “Labor Participation Rate” – the number of people working divided by the number who presumably could be working. That’s been declining for several years. But it matches better how the layman would view the economy. “Is everyone working that wants to”. Another one is the “Employment to Population Ratio”

 

Here’s a graph of all 3 together. The news media can cite whichever one they want to “spin” economic news.

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wdSemnuZGY8/Twb5uI7BWcI/AAAAAAAALzc/XC0hyFpsRic/s1600/EmployPopDec2011.jpg

[Jason T. Radice]

Its kind of like being surprised that oil prices usually go up around winter, when demand is at its peak. The same things happen year after year. Unemployment always goes down in December as retailers and services hire specifically for the holiday season. Come January, those jobs are gone. They are supposed to be accounted for, like seasonal farm workers, but they never are. The markets saw that this time, but are usually fooled by the slightest fluctuation in the employment numbers. Also, we will have to wait two months to see if the numbers ‘stick’. These numbers are usually revised negatively.

 

What WAS encouraging is that manufacturing was up a bit, but one must look at why. Much of that can be (not saying it is this time) automakers recalling laid-off workers after a factory re-tool or, again, a seasonal burst for the holidays.

 

[mauiBob]

Ida,

True that Beijing and Shanghai can = L.A. or NYC. But, only on a small scale. Look at this photo of a highway in Shanghai. Not even the worst LA traffic has looked this horrible. I don’t think our manufacturers used lethal chemicals in the making of toy products either. Guess where America ships its poisonous mountain of old cathode ray television sets and other electronics? Yes, to China in one huge environmental waste land as shown in a news segment by 60 Minutes. You send it to your local e-waste recycle center and they turn around and sell it to China. China can do all the “Green” technology production until they turn blue, but it will never matter until their population is under control.

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