RIBA Announced May Results of the Future Trends Survey

RIBA Announced May Results of the Future Trends Survey

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the May 2009 results of its monthly Future Trends Survey, which present the most positive improvements in terns of forecasted workload and staff retention since the survey started.

The trends emanating from last month's survey continue to highlight further optimism in current conditions; only 26 per cent of practices were expecting a decrease in workload compared to 34 per cent in March.

Practices predicting an increase in workload also jumped from 18 per cent in April to 27 per cent in May, a further indication that practices continue to grow more confident about their work outlook.

The number of practices that are less likely to be underemployed remained constant, with a one per cent increase from 72 per cent in April.

There have been minimal changes for workload predictions across the private housing and commercial sectors, with 11 and 10 per cent (respectively) expecting an increase in April, compared to just 12 and 13 per cent in April (respectively).

However, more practices expect their workload from the public sector to decline, with 23 per cent in April compared to 17 per cent in May.

One of the most significant changes in the survey related to redundancies and staff retention; 76 per cent of all practices expected staff levels to remain constant over the next three months, compared to 57 per cent in April, reflecting changes in the number of architects employed in practices.

RIBA

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