The latest figures from the Turnover and Orders in Production and Services Industries data suggest that output in current prices from architects and engineers is flatlining. That translates into a real-terms fall when we take account of inflation.

The graph shows the broad picture. And some will take comfort from the fact that the workload is not still in decline.

Overseas work has tended to account for about 10% or so of the work and we will have to wait for the publication of the Pink Book 2011 before we see how well UK companies are managing to rebuild their workloads with overseas business.

Given that the architectural and engineering business is people-based, it seems reasonable to assume from these figures that overall the pressure is still down on both jobs and salaries.

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