The next job downsizing victims. Developer related services.

[Neshanic]

I have been working on my own as a landscape architect since 1996. Look for these items to be the causes for large civil engineering firm mass layoffs that cater to developers after the election:

The large firms cannot keep people from jumping from firm to firm to get better benefits...as benefits continue to collapse.

The vast majority of firms are very top-heavy with older/non computer literate managers.

Firm billing rates are skyrocketing, to cover the cost of the huge overhead....pre-dotcom type lavish offices, huge salaries for stamped engineers billing rates.

The younger computer savy employees are paid fractions of what the managers make, and have no loyalty to stay when a better offer comes, or they go to a survivor firm; described below.

The shake out is occuring in big build environments with the developers that have merged, and bought out competitors, and engineering firms that merged and are fighting for that smaller pool of clients.

The technology leveler is finally coming into play after the buildup of technology in the firm offices during the 90's. Small firms of 50 are appearing and they are using the technology that has been available, and continue to add more. The older/larger firms have the technology, but have not trained the employees to use it to maximum. A sign of a walking dead firm...vast anouts of paper and plans piled everywhere, and employees that do not use computers to track jobs, instead, using massive piles of folders.

The programs to run a huge office with various locations are too expensive for them to upgrade to, and the small survivor firms use the money they save to plow back into software.Another sign of a firm in it's final stages is the Autocadd paradox. The survivor firms have the latest;2005, the ones for the heap are still in 2000, and cannot make the transition, their finances tied up in overhead and productivity problems.

Productivity of the older managers. They are stamped and therefore required. but as they command the highest salaries, but are the least productive, they stay on, as the staff churns over and over. The days of the three hour client meetings at lunch will soon be a memory.

Stamped engineer, non stamp ratios. In 1995 a typical firm would have unstamped staff that would learn under a stamped engineers direction. 2004 is many stamped engineers overseeing technical school drafters, with no training in engineering, hired because of low cost. The cost of a civil grad as an entry person is double of a tech school drafter.

[tech3149]

1. Good analysis

It sounds like the environment of the last company I worked for and the primary reason I left.