A Melbourne-based specialist recruitment agency has slammed industry experts’ claims that “at least 1,000 Melbourne architects” are out of work as “grossly overstated”.
“At least 1,000 Melbourne-based architects have lost their jobs and firms in Sydney are working four-day weeks to cut costs,” then national president of the Australian Institute of Architects, Howard Tanner, said in May 2009.
However, recruiter Bloomfield Tremayne claims this statistic has “no real basis”.
“There is absolutely no way that these figures relate to the real situation in any way,” Bloomfield Tremayne partner Bruce Whetter said.
The recruitment specialist estimates that, since October 2008, 350 to 400 professionals have been made redundant due to work shortages in the Melbourne architecture environment and 70 to 80 per cent of those have found work elsewhere, although in many cases in contract rather than permanent roles.
“While not everyone looking for work contacts us, we think something in the region of 80 per cent do and we’re usually aware of the number of redundancies that have been made at specific practices,” Whetters told Architecture & Design.
The claims have the potential to undermine confidence in the architecture sector, lead out-of-work architects to look for jobs outside the profession and discourage architecture students from completing their courses, Whetters said.
