Unemployment Rate Among Architecture Grads at 13.9%

In 2007, Jody Verser was  still a student at the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture and figured finding a job as an architect wouldn’t be a problem when he graduated.

“I thought I was going to be able to throw a dart on the country map, go to that place and get a job,” he said. “And then it just didn’t happen.”

The Great Recession wiped out a number of construction and housing projects and, along with them, the need for architects.

By the time Verser graduated in August 2010, the job market for architects had dried up.

Although some grads found work as architects, others took their design skills to related fields or created their own opportunities. 

A recent report from the Georgetown University Center on Education & the Workforce found the jobless rate for recent college graduates who majored in architecture was 13.9 percent, the highest for any major. In comparison, the unemployment rate was 11.1 percent for those who majored in the arts.

The numbers didn’t improve much for experienced architects, either. Their unemployment rate was 9.2 percent, according to the study, which was released on Jan. 4. The national jobless rate in December was 8.5 percent.

The unemployment numbers for architecture majors didn’t surprise Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center, who said the percentage was the highest he had seen in any field.

“In most recessions, housing and construction take a pretty good hit, but they usually come back though,” Carnevale said.

Because of the shaky economy, however, the construction industry hasn’t bounced back quite as quickly.

“It’s tough for the entire profession,” said Scott Frank, a spokesman for the American Institute of Architects. “So certainly it’s going to be some rough waters for those just getting out of school without years of experience under their belt.

“From what I know anecdotally, this is the worst recession that architects have suffered since the Depression.”

Frank, however, did point to signs that the construction sector is improving.

The AIA said in a Jan. 18 news release that all regions except the West are showing more demand for design services.

The AIA said the Architecture Billing Index for November and December shows an overall increase in demand for design services. It was the first time the AIA reported consecutive positive months in 2011. 

“This is very good news for the design and construction industry, and it’s entirely possible conditions will slowly continue to improve as the year progresses,” Kermit Baker, AIA’s chief economist, said in the release.

The AIA projected a 2.1 percent rise in spending in 2012 for nonresidential construction projects, which will be followed by a 6.4 percent increase in spending in 2013, according to a Jan. 25 news release from the AIA.

“Spending on hotels, industrial plants and commercial properties is going to set the pace for the construction industry over the next two years,” Baker said in the news release. He said the health care and religious sectors would lead the recovery.

Jeff Shannon, the dean of the architecture school at the University of Arkansas, is upbeat. He said he had spoken with a number of practicing architects in the state and his informal poll showed that in most parts of the state, the industry is making a comeback.

“Projections are [that] over the next 20, 25, 50 years, more buildings will be built than have been built before in history,” Shannon said.

In addition, he said, architects are involved in more projects to preserve buildings and remodel them. The “preservation area has really risen pretty rapidly over the last 15 years, and I think that will continue,” Shannon said. “For short term, for the building industry and architecture, landscape architecture and interior design are very strong.”

And some graduates have landed jobs.

William Burks, 26, of Fayetteville said he had a job lined up before he graduated from the School of Architecture in the spring of 2009. Burks got a job in the Bentonville office of Scott & Goble Architects Inc., based in Tulsa. In May 2010, he was recruited to Marlon Blackwell Architect in Fayetteville, where he works as an intern architect.

“It’s not like there isn’t work out there for architects,” Burks said. “It’s just whether or not you’re qualified for the work.”

Nevertheless, Carnevale at the Georgetown Center said he would think twice before declaring architecture as a major.

“I would be prepared, if being an architect was what I really wanted to do, to suffer for a while in tough labor markets [and] remember that careers last 45 years,” he said. “So just because the first few years might be bumpy, it doesn’t absolutely prohibit your becoming an architect, if it’s really what you want to do.”

Several architects agreed that the current job market was tough.

Cromwell Architects Engineers of Little Rock in the past has employed students for summer internships and then hired them once they graduated.

“But we sure were not able to do that the last couple of years,” said Greg Cockmon, president of the firm.

“And that is a shame, because the talent level that’s out there is unbelievable. And they know the new technology and all of that stuff. It’s just very tough that you can’t get that incorporated into your company.”

 

New Ventures

Being without a job in the architecture field hasn’t stopped some grads from moving forward with their lives.

Josh Clemence’s lifelong dream was to become an architect. But he ditched that plan after he graduated from the School of Architecture at Fayetteville in 2009.

Clemence had a job with a Dallas firm and was laid off because of the economy. He then spent the next several months sending out hundreds of resumes and sitting through countless interviews.

“Nobody was hiring,” he said.

After five months without a job, Clemence used his design and technology skills to start Internet companies, including Styleby.me.

Clemence’s work caught the eye of Dr. John James, who founded the e-commerce company Acumen Brands of Fayetteville. James offered Clemence a job. In January, Clemence started working for Acumen as the director of social marketing.

Since then, Acumen has taken off. Last week, Dillard’s Inc. of Little Rock announced a $4 million investment in Acumen. Dillard’s said in a news release it will work with Acumen to enhance both Dillards.com and Acumen’s 12 online sites.

Clemence said he doesn’t regret the decision to major in architecture.

“I get to apply everything that I learned in architecture school to everything I do today as a designer in the Internet world,” he said.

 

Other Students

Ben Emanuelson, 31, of Siloam Springs suffered through two rounds of layoffs after he graduated from UA’s School of Architecture in 2006.

He got a job right out of college at Miller Boskus Lack Architects of Fayetteville, but was laid off in November 2008.

Emanuelson bounced back with a job at his father’s architecture firm, JKJ Architects PLLC of Rogers, but was let go in the middle of 2009, again because of the economy, he said.

“As far as finding work, it’s been pretty tough,” Emanuelson said. He has tried to get jobs in Europe, Asia and New York, but to no avail.

Emanuelson also started a design firm with a friend in 2010.

“We had some differences,” he said, causing him to leave Moran-Emanuelson Design Services of Rogers in early 2011.

Emanuelson said these days he’s a property manager for his family’s investments while trying to get his architecture license, which typically is a three-year process.

He said he doesn’t regret going into architecture because the study has “enriched every part of my life. I love architecture and I love designing,” Emanuelson said.

He said he wants to buy some land and build a house.

“I decided one good way to get projects built is to build them yourself,” he said.

Meanwhile, Verser, 25, who graduated from the UA in 2010, said he’d been able to find a secure job in the planning department of the University of Arkansas. As a paid intern, Verser is using his architectural skills to create 3-D models of campus building for planning purposes.

“Eventually I do want to be a licensed architect,” he said. “It’s just the road to that has been somewhat obscured.”