We have an array of information to post today so we'll get right to it.
Zweigwhite 2009 Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) Industry Outlook
The first item we are presenting is a summary of the Zweigwhite 2009 AEC Industry Outlook by Building Design + Constuction Magazine. Zweigwhite is a management consulting firm that provides information and services to architecture and engineering firms. The summary is a bit vague because the summary is basically an advertisement to purchase the full data report from Zweigwhite. However, there is some useful information in the report such as the expectations of industry CEO's on what business will be like in 2009. According to the summary, only 16% of AEC CEO's believe that business in 2009 will be outstanding or excellent. 46% 23%, and 15% think that business will be good, satisfactory, and poor, respectively. Given that people seem to be bullish in general, these percentages do not invoke a lot of confidence.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers Engineering and Construction Survey
Another CEO survey was completed by Big 4 accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The information provided in this survey is also frusteratingly vague but it is worth a look through, if only to see an example of a technical report that is not helpful (e.g. don't send anything like this to your clients if you want repeat business from them). See this link for additional "data" from the survey.
Update on Clark County Layoffs
In March, we blogged about layoffs in Clark County. Updating that story, on Thursday the Las Vegas Review Journal wrote that the County is laying off almost 50% of civil engineers in the Development Services department. The County is also leaving 33 of the remaining 56 positions vacant. The laid off engineers are going into a tough Las Vegas job market. Gambling and housing starts in southern Nevada have been severely impacted by the recession.
Paul Krugman's Outlook on Unemployment
Hopefully things will start to turn around soon but we don't have too much hope that things will change in the near future - apparently economist Paul Krugman doesn't think so either. In a speech he gave Friday at the University of Cincinnati, Krugman stated that he believed unemployment would rise to 12% nationwide. That is a 50% increase over the current unemployment rate of 8.1%.
Scary.
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