Hays Architecture - January 2010
Hotspots
Candidates with strong documentation skills for high-rise and multi-residential developments continue to be in demand. Those candidates with experience using Revit or ArchiCAD are also sought; the low number of candidates with these skills ensures they are employed quickly.
The residential market is experiencing increased activity, with ArchiCAD drafters for residential projects in demand.
Project Architects are also sought.
The coming quarter
The first two months of a New Year are traditionally very busy for the architecture market. This year, practices with increasing workloads are creating jobs, most often at a project level. We expect practices to increase their temporary opportunities initially, with permanent needs to follow.
Employer trends
Given the tumultuous past 12 to 18 months, employers are taking much longer to commit to candidates and present an offer. They often trial a candidate on a contract basis before a permanent offer is made. They will not commit to new staff as quickly as they did in the past.
Employers are demonstrating a preference for candidates with experience completing projects.
Candidate trends
While there are more readily available candidates overall, strong all-rounders with stable work histories are rare. Many employers believe the current market is still candidate rich, but it is in fact candidate short. This is most obvious for exceptional project architects/architects, given the number of practices focusing on project work.
The exception occurs for entry-level architectural drafters. A decrease in related projects and the transfer of duties to others in an organisation has seen the availability of these candidates rise.
