Landscape Architects Are In Demand.

I recently wrote about landscape architecture economic anxiety caused by the credit crunch, sub-prime melt down, and the resulting downturn in the construction industry. This week more bad news was released by the Commerce Department that showed housing construction had dropped to the lowest level in more than sixteen years. But it looks like the immediate economic outlook isn't so bad for landscape architects. In November, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) released the results of their business survey showing landscape architectural services were in demand. More than three fourths of the 251 firms who responded reported steady or increased billable hours. There was no indication as to how much they had increased. Forty percent of the respondents said they were planning on hiring in the fourth quarter, which good news for landscape architects looking for work. If you are wondering, as of this writing there were 82 job postings on ASLA's joblink in the last 60 days. Unfortunately, there is no data for comparing with other time periods. ASLA's survey was conducted during the third quarter of this year, so it may have been before the big credit fiasco in August and September. I wish the data released was more comprehensive. Breaking it down by region, office type, specialty, and other factors would have been helpful. ASLA should consider using the format of AIA's Component Survey of Business Conditions. It is much more informative. ASLA is expected to conduct another survey in Mid-January and release it the following month. So we will wait and see if all the doom and gloom about the economy will settle in on landscape architecture. Hopefully not, but we are all in this together, so we are effected by the global picture. With only 30,000 landscape architects in the US according to the press release, the law of supply and demand should be in the LA's favor.