RIBA survey finds regions are now the most optimistic
Virtually all the companies completing the RIBA’s latest Future Trends survey have said they expect staff numbers to stabilise or increase in the coming months as the recovery spreads beyond London and the south-east.
A total of 195 practices took part in the latest survey with 96% saying they will not be laying off staff in the next quarter – and nearly 1 in 5 expecting to hire more staff.
The workload index remained at +28 in August with all regions returning balance figures in excess of +20.
The most optimistic areas were Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Midlands and East Anglia.
“High confidence levels have now spread right across the UK as all nations and regions begin to see an improving workload situation,” said RIBA director practice Adrian Dobson.
Private housing and commercial continue to remain where the most work is with commercial finally catching up with private housing as the most optimistic sector. Both returned a score of +23 in August – although the +23 figure was down on July’s number of +29 for housing.
The public sector and community sectors both returned positive scores as well.
Ealier this month, the latest unemployment figures showed that the number of architects signing on is now less than half of what it was a year ago.
In all, 230 architects were signing on last month with the last time this many architects signing on being back in July 2008.
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