Planning- Employment prospects?

Top_Banana_2

Is there much employment out there for Planning graduates?

The are I'm interested in is local council offices dealing with planning permission applications.

Is the 'market' doing ok, despite the crash in the property industry?

Oldernotwiser

I don't know whether you're familiar withthis website but I think that you might find it useful.

www.prospects.ac.uk

cmw1212

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I don't know whether you're familiar withthis website but I think that you might find it useful.

www.prospects.ac.uk

Spooky. I was about to recommend that site too.

kateab

I used to work at a council in the North West and just before I took redundancy, they cut back severely on the development control staff. They even shifted one to a different department then made them redundant from THAT department a month later which is shocking really.

Also, my friend works at another council in DC and they have lost jobs. They've not technically lost people as they had a number of vacancies so they have just not recruited those.

I think the major part of the problem is the number of companies that have put building projects on hold. In our area, only one builder is actually building homes right now whereas a year or so ago, there were several major builders planning developments, all of which have been mothballed or stopped half way.

Bleak outlook I know but if things do pick up in the economy next year, then it's possible there will be a need for more planners. Whether they will want graduates or will take from a pool of experienced planners who've been out of work will remain to be seen.

hth

kateab

planning_officer

Top_Banana wrote: »

Is there much employment out there for Planning graduates?

The are I'm interested in is local council offices dealing with planning permission applications.

Is the 'market' doing ok, despite the crash in the property industry?

Reasonably healthy I'd say - whilst private planning consultancies have laid staff off over the past few months, there are still plenty of LPA jobs around - certainly in the south east and London - have a look at Planning magazine or http://jobs.planningresource.co.uk/

I can only speak for my LPA, but despite the economic climate, we received more planning applications last month than at any time since mid-2006! Personally, I think that the economic issues are making it difficult for people to move house, so they prefer to extend instead, hence more applications!