RIBA Announces Latest Results of the Future Trends Survey

The Royal Institute of British Architects announced the February 2009 results of its monthly Future Trends Survey, demonstrating further evidence of a decreasing workload for architects.

46 per cent of all respondents expected their workloads to decline over the next three months, compared to 39 per cent last month; only 16 per cent predicted an increase and 39 per cent believed they would stay the same.

As in January's survey results, the Public Sector remained the top area that practices aimed to procure work from, although there was an evident lack of optimism compared to last month's figures.

55 per cent of practices expected Public Sector work to stay the same (compared to 60 per cent last month) and only 20 per cent predicted an increase (compared to 27 per cent last month).

The most significant drop in confidence was amongst those practices with commercial workloads; 52 per cent predicted a decrease in workload compared to 44 per cent in the January results.

In terms of redundancies and staff retention, 62 per cent of all practices expected staff levels to remain constant over the next three months, compared to 72 per cent in January, suggesting a worsening outlook for salaried architects' employment prospects.

There is a rise in the number of practices expecting staff numbers to be cut, increasing from 24 per cent in January to 35 per cent in February.