Area A&E Firms Report Uptick in Jobs, Workers

Employment at Northwest Arkansas’ architecture and engineering firms is up year-over-year, an encouraging sign for those in both industries.

“Someone’s got something going on all the time,” HP Engineering Inc. president Bill Hodge said of his firm’s client list.

The increased activity is a welcome sign after a major slowdown in the construction industry during recent years. In HPEI’s case, Hodge said many of the projects keeping his firm busy are tied to buildings that were constructed before the slump.

“Now we’re starting to fill up all those spaces,” he said. “While it took four or five years … it’s finally getting to that point where it’s filling up.”

In those cases, “shells” of buildings typically already exist. Companies like HPEI then complete work on interior walls, partitions, etc.

“We go back in and fill in the guts to support the tenant,” Hodge said.

“Our revenues are exceeding expectations, so that’s a healthy sign.”

HPEI isn’t alone. A total of 31 architecture and engineering firms responded to requests for employment data for both the 2010 and 2011 lists.

For the 2011 list, click here. Thirteen of the 31 firms reported employment growth, while another eight reported no change. Only 10 reported a decrease in employment.

Including firms that responded this year, but not in 2010, total employment is up from a total of 1,007 employees to 1,048. The firms that responded this year, but not in 2010, have a total of 25 employees.

Both overall numbers would have been even higher had pb2 Architecture and Engineering submitted data. The company reported 194 employees in 2010.

Room to Grow

Among the firms that reported growth, Harrison French & Associates Ltd. showed the biggest raw change. After reporting 120 employees in 2010, Harrison French reported 160 this year.

“Our growth is based on national work, mainly, and also adding mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering sectors. … We’ve become a more full-service company,” Harrison French COO Larry Lott said.

Lott said the firm has stuck to its long-term plans despite the recent recession.

“Some firms do just architecture and some do just engineering,” Lott said. “We do both.

“We made the conscious decision years ago to add engineering and it’s worked out pretty well, especially in terms of self-growth.”

Lott didn’t divulge specific revenue totals, but said those numbers have risen with the increase in services and employees. The employee growth has averaged “about 15 to 20 percent annually” for some time, he said, and revenue totals “trail that a little bit, but it still correlates to some degree.”

“It better,” Lott added with a laugh.

Hodge said HPEI’s growth has been steady, too, and largely the result of the company’s emphasis on client diversification.

“We’re a little bit different in that we’ve been growing even during the economic downturn in the industry,” Hodge said.

That’s evident in HPEI’s plan to open an office in Tulsa. Hodge said the office is expected to be “up and running” in about a month.

Hodge said one current employee will make the move, and the plan is to add other employees as needed from the Tulsa market.

That type of growth and expansion reflects an uptick that’s been a welcome sign both locally and nationally, Lott said.

“We do a lot of national work for Wal-Mart, 7-Eleven and others,” Lott said, “and what we’re feeling is that whatever the bottom was, it has begun to rise. It’s not a steep rise, but there is growth.

“We’re feeling that locally, too.”