21st May 2009, 10:32 PM
Some are, recent recruitment of 30 odd at one unit, there was a site with 70-80 on it a couple of weeks ago, but they are all back on the lookout as far as I know. All very stagnant here in London though with more redundancies expected next month.
Spoke to fieldwork manager at one unit, had had over 400 applications for a site assistant posts. There is no way anyone can sort through that lot. I was asked 4 questions:
Do you have CSCS?
Do you drive?
Where are you based?
How long have you been digging?
In that order.
The jobs market in archaeology is in my opinion almost bloated with unemployed archaeologists, a lot of them very very good, and most with 'decent' levels of experience compared to recent years. You can't see the wood for the trees. I feel very sorry for new graduates this summer. At present we are suffering from not only the recession, but the after-effects of a period of boom, when frankly anyone could get a job, and keep it, and so now appear fairly experienced by the traditional '12 months/2 years' levels.
Because there had been so much work on, the traditional attrition rate had dropped right off as people could get work easily, and stayed in archaeology, whereas 5 years ago many would have given up as it wasn't worth the grief and poor pay. And now there aren't those comparatively well paid cushy graduate jobs to escape into, so even if you want to leave archaeology, you are kind of stuck doing what you know.
So we have more archaeologists, who are more experienced, going after fewer jobs.
It will sort itself out in the end of course, that's what is so wonderful about the market...
Hopefully things will pick up and we can get back to the bad old days!
Personally I expect the one thing no-one has thought of will happen: There will be loads of sites, and no archaeology on them...'developments, developments everywhere, and not a ditch to dig!'
Spoke to fieldwork manager at one unit, had had over 400 applications for a site assistant posts. There is no way anyone can sort through that lot. I was asked 4 questions:
Do you have CSCS?
Do you drive?
Where are you based?
How long have you been digging?
In that order.
The jobs market in archaeology is in my opinion almost bloated with unemployed archaeologists, a lot of them very very good, and most with 'decent' levels of experience compared to recent years. You can't see the wood for the trees. I feel very sorry for new graduates this summer. At present we are suffering from not only the recession, but the after-effects of a period of boom, when frankly anyone could get a job, and keep it, and so now appear fairly experienced by the traditional '12 months/2 years' levels.
Because there had been so much work on, the traditional attrition rate had dropped right off as people could get work easily, and stayed in archaeology, whereas 5 years ago many would have given up as it wasn't worth the grief and poor pay. And now there aren't those comparatively well paid cushy graduate jobs to escape into, so even if you want to leave archaeology, you are kind of stuck doing what you know.
So we have more archaeologists, who are more experienced, going after fewer jobs.
It will sort itself out in the end of course, that's what is so wonderful about the market...
Hopefully things will pick up and we can get back to the bad old days!
Personally I expect the one thing no-one has thought of will happen: There will be loads of sites, and no archaeology on them...'developments, developments everywhere, and not a ditch to dig!'