Each quarter, the American Institute of Architects published the ABI or Architectural Billing Index which tracks the amount of work that architects around the country are billing out.  Historically, the ABI has served as a great economic indicator for the building industry, and the entire economy.  Since the architect is the beginning of any building project, the changes in the ABI can show us where the building industry will be in 6-18 months.

In 2007, the ABI started to plummet sharply, one year before the building industry started to fall and the Great Recession began.  From then, until last August, the ABI has remained low.  Now, the ABI is as strong as it’s been in nearly three years.

An even more promising discovery in the last quarter was the significant number of firms looking to hire, but unable to find qualified applicants.  With the rapidly evolving technologies like Building Integrated Management, Archviz, rapid prototyping, and parametric modeling, the field of available employees with these skillsets is very small.

At DCTC, this is our pedagogical focus, creating qualified applicants with a broad ranges of skills in all the most relevant and emerging technologies that are in the highest demand in the architectural profession.

Read more about the strong, current growth in the architecture profession here.

Learn more about the ABI as an economic indicator here.