A&E Employment Slow to Decline

Though construction has slowed dramatically, employment at Northwest Arkansas’ architecture and engineering firms declined only 2.4 percent year-over-year.

Of the 40 firms ranked on the Business Journal’s annual list, which can be viewed here, 29 participated by filling out a form that requested number of employees, sample projects and a list of other professional designations. Eleven firms were contacted but did not participate. Information for those firms was carried forward from the previous year, but they were not ranked and their employment numbers were not calculated into the market’s total.

In all, there are about 1,176 total people employed at the 29 firms, down from 1,203 a year prior.

There were 78 architects and 134 engineers.

Of the 29 firms, seven had positive employment growth, with a combined average of 14.7 percent.

About three times as many people who work in the industry do so in Benton County. There are 907 people employed at 14 firms in Benton County; 269 people employed at 15 firms in Washington County.