Summer lull or something more significant?

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As the holidays come to an end, we’re often asked if the current situation is a summer lull or something more significant? Certainly, as you would expect, August has been quite quiet and after the last year witnessed a number of shocks from terrorism, political changes and now North Korea, a little nervousness is understandable. Beneath this, however, it appears most practices are still quite busy and at 9B we’re cautiously optimistic. This is very sector specific though. High-end residential is a lot slower but even then for smaller practices, it only takes a couple of good projects to come in and they are suddenly incredibly busy. For some of our clients that concentrate in this sector, this appears to be very true at the moment, as customers have reverted to well-established specialists.

Other areas of improvement are within education and healthcare which had been very slow. After recent placements in these sectors, we are still on the lookout for more projects architects with around 5 years post part 3 and at associate level.

For the larger AJ100 studios, there still seems to be a number who are actively recruiting architects and especially those with strong Revit skills and experience in the Private Rented Sector or Hospitality. In London especially, these practices often employ a large contingent of EU Architects. Since Brexit, however, it has been sadly very noticeable how many have said London no longer holds the same appeal and have left the UK. If workloads stay strong and EU Architects continue to leave at the same rate, skills shortages will soon arise and practices will have to compete even harder to attract the best staff. This may have an impact on salaries but when most firms are feeling pressures on fee levels, there may be little room for manoeuvre. To track these changes further, 9B is conducting an in depth salary survey to compare with our 2016 results. If you would like to receive a copy of the report, please complete our confidential survey.

If you are considering a new role, please send us a copy of your CV to info@9Bcareers.com and view a selection of our latest roles below:

Experienced Part 2s for design orientated residential studio : West London