In my area just about 90 percent of the job force was laid off in the building industry about 2 years ago. The company I worked for went down at the end of 2008. There has been two job postings I have seen here in the last 8 months. The two adds were online adds. Each not explaining what company was hiring. And the emails rejected my email. I think some of these emails get backed up so fast that they reject anything above storage limit. There are probably 400 of me looking for that one job in this area alone. Even Edsa has been letting go employees. There are not even any jobs around here in related fields. I have resume and portfolio ready to go. Everything in digital format as well as my own website. And I still can’t even find jobs to apply to. So far, every job I have searched I find the day its posted. And I send resume and portfolio that night. And I have not had any responses not even an email. When I started working in 2004. The job market was flooded. But because this area is so tied into the building industry the only firms surviving are very diversified. Such as more government and public works along with smaller job private residences. The DOT work is plentiful. But most small landscape architecture firms have slowed to a stop.
I called and emailed every firm in the area. None are hiring. Home Depot even said they are accepting applications and that it will be placed with the other 400 apps they received this week alone. And they were not hiring either. This area has been hit very hard as far as jobs go.
I do some contract work but its very far and few between. Even those jobs are taking 3 times longer to finish than normal. No one is making any decisions. Things are going slower and slower through the counties. I am almost contemplating a career change. I will stay optimistic but job searching is turning into a waste of time after 8 months. I don’t see any. I search roughly about 20 online job search sites. I have web pages for just about every local firm around. I went onto ASLA and did a search for all firms in the area. Most won’t even accept phone calls if they are hiring. Its amazing me everyday.
