More data on the effect of the crisis on the profession, collected by the Architects' Union (Sindicato de Arquitectos) and reported today in the Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia:
- 4,000 Spanish architects have left the country to work abroad, 7.5% of the profession.
- Many are recent graduates "who can't find anything here (in Spain), and are highly valued for their excellent preparation and adaptability," says Union President Ignacio Bisbal.
- Most go to France, Germany,Great Britain and other European Union countries, where their architecture licenses are recognized.
- The average salary for architects working abroad is 24,500 euros a year, compared to less than 16,000 in Spain.
- An additional 14% of the profession has found work in other sectors.
- The official unemployment figure for the profession after these subtractions is 26.7%, although Bisbal assures that the real figure is higher.
- Behind the figures: Spain's real estate industry has gone from 920,000 housing starts in 2006 to 60,000 this year.
- Oversupply: 3,000 new architects come out of Spain's architecture schools each year, and there are 60,000 registered architects in the country, 1 per 800 inhabitants, compared to 1 per 1,500 in Europe as a whole.
- Architects with work have seen their earnings go down: 60% report income cuts of over 20%.
- 18% of working architects earn less than 12,000 euros a year, and only 6.2% earn over 27,000 a year.
Crisis Closes Half of Madrid's Architecture Studios
Chart above is meaningless, but you get the idea.
No comments:
Post a Comment