It's amazing to think that with only 50 days to go until Brexit, there are so many outcomes that are still possible. This has created a huge amount of uncertainty within the jobs market and firms are unsure whether to invest for the future or try and make do until things become clearer.
When looking at the number of job adverts on the leading job boards, the data becomes even more confusing. The total number of adverts compared to this time last year has surprisingly increased by around 9%, whereas the number of adverts from architectural practices has decreased by more than 50%.
Although there is a lot of nervousness around, a number of architectural practices still appear to be exceptionally busy. This, however, is tempered by clients only committing to fewer stages of work and making it harder to plan for the long term. Practices are therefore invariably looking for Architects who are immediately available to work on contract with a view to hopefully going permanent in the future.
Firms who have advertised such positions, however, have been saying that finding suitably qualified architects has become a lot harder in recent months. This can perhaps be explained by the large number of EU Architects who have decided to relocate back to mainland Europe since the referendum result which is beginning to create a skills shortage in the UK. This is therefore why firms appear to be using agencies more to find staff and the total number of adverts has increased.
The majority of roles we are receiving at 9B are requiring candidates with strong Revit skills within practice and availability at short notice. Although high-end residential has been very quiet for the last year, this sector has also finally started to improve and in the last couple of weeks, we have received new roles for Part 2s through to Associates.
A few of our latest opportunities can be seen below: