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Definately feeling the pinch in my neck of the woods and have been having the credit crunch moan with loads of fellow unemployed archaeologists over the last week!
I havent signed on for years but looks like only option at mo!
Its this years graduates I feel sorry for though at least when jobs do come up those with a bit of experience will be snapped up - and theres plenty around. God knows how you secure your first job after uni in the present economic climate.
Always someone worse off and all that......
It cant last for ever tho or so I keep telling myself [xx(]
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I'm also remindin myself that there regularly used to be a drop off in work in July/August and December/January every year. It's just in about the last 5 years that this didn't seem to happen. So fingers crossed it'll pick up again.
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Hiya
I have to say that I haven't noticed a big change as of yet - as Old Girl says, we always have a slump in the summer as the planning committees don't sit. I have noticed more post-ex assessments coming in though, which generally suggests people are inside working on (old) sites rather than outside digging up new ones. Some of the units I talk to are slow, others are manic. Interestingly, some have mentioned they are being contacted directly from developers with less of a consultancy middle-man. But of course constant news about home-builders going bust is a worry.
We'll see how the summer fares. Good luck to us all!
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I think it's a bit of a misconception that recessions are bad for business. Bad for some businesses certainly, but for those working on successful models it provides an ideal opportunity to restructure without significant opposition - an essential step to growth. My own experience of the so-called credit crunch is to have my pay frozen (and given 5% inflation, essentially cut), my working hours extended by 2.5 hours a week for no additional pay, and all office flexi-time removed. There have been redundancies too with the threat of more, but if truth be told they were the weekest link anyway. It's a difficult time for business owners too, but not without its upside. Choppy waters call for tough, uncompromising decisions and this is why Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, has publicly declared he would welcome 'a deep and bloody recession'. I of course retain the right to feck off. And given happier times most of us would do.
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I was hoping to return to the unit I used to work for as they had several large projects due start in the next few weeks. However, I've just been told that the developers have pulled out and there is no work available. Gutted. I guess it's back to pencil pushing for the civil service...
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I didn't know Michael O'leary had taken over H******* Archaeology.
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At least it will take some of the workload off the curators. I can only wonder what they might do to fill up their time.
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gerrrrrrofffff
I am off myself to Jordan... in September.!
I have to confess.. don't know whats going on out there... paid work that is...
"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers
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Things are manic where I am. I am just guessing, but competitive pricing may be one reason. Developers are looking at costs and shopping around, instead of going with the same old unit. Money is going elsewhere, there seem to be more commercial business developments, plus elderly care. Also a certain amount of local authority money getting spent.
The way I look at it, we never really knew what was on the books 3 months down the line, and we still don't, but we are busy now, so what has changed?
And yes, there is plenty of post ex, but I've got a months worth of work lined up before I even have to think about touching the backlog, assuming nothing else comes in.
Sorry for all the folks finding it tough though. Was there in 1990-91, scraping work in the Midlands where I lived, with old college friends in London begging me to get them in, when I could barely hang on to work myself. Survived in the end by going back to college, but never saw a bright side to the 90s. Things only really picked up in 2001 for me.
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Maybe Chert (microcrystalline- no different to flint) whats going on is that although there are fewer applications coming in, the curators are still pumping out the same number of hits per week, so that they don?t get sacked- but that as the bigger jobs die away the competition dies off and a bonanza appears for those who are priced just right as the inefficient part of the unfair competition pulls its socks up (those looking for an archaeologist, rather than a consultant, who can cut through the bull). I am going on holiday and turning the phone off having had two extra jobs this week that I did not need (nor archaeology -well I found a pressed brick)
