<p>It seems that when times are good nobody can imagine them getting bad, and when times are bad nobody can imagine them getting better. Things have been awful for the last few years, but five years ago any student that I was trying to hire had at least four other job offers. I went to a job fair at Iowa State where there were 65 firms and 15 students interviewing. I can’t predict the future, but I know that things change.</p>
<p>The amusing part of this report is that their timing is really off. We are seeing an upturn in work, and for the first time in three years we had to compete with other firms to hire our top candidates. Perhaps Europe will bring us down, but I see a lot of firms that have gotten much older and need to start hiring new graduates to balance out their staffs. Technology continues to change and the new graduates are better prepared to deal with it than the 55 year old architects who got laid off and are still looking for a job. Not to mention the boomers getting ready to retire.</p>
<p>Things are still not great, but I don’t think architecture is one of the 13 most useless college majors.</p>
<p>rick</p>