PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY
In this week’s PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR SURVEY I’m asking the question:
Post Great Recession-Are Jobs Going to Come Back?
I’ve been thinking lately about what the jobs situation in the land surveying industry will look like as as a full recovery takes hold and the Great Recession, hopefully, comes to an end. Lately I’ve heard several experts talk about jobs and the economy discussing how this will not only be a jobless recovery, but that in certain fields some jobs will never come back. In many respects, I believe this will be true for professional land surveyors and all land surveying technicians.
The times They Have A Changed!
Regardless of the current economic conditions and times, although significant, if you look at the history of land surveying there is one very important truism: As technology has increased the number of surveyors to complete the work has decreased. If you’ve been surveying for any amount of time, think back to how many people worked on your field crew and how many people it took in the office to get that work done. If you go way back, was it four or more people on your field crew and nearly an equal amount in the office? If you go back to when I started in the mid 1980′s, there where three field crew members and at least two to three surveyors or drafters working in the office (this doesn’t include clerical workers).
However, shortly after I started surveying the Total Station with built-in EDM became commonly used, and the field crews were reduced to two people. Over time, the office became the same way, in that personnel was reduced as software like AutoCAD was adopted. Where it was common to have an office survey technician do basic reductions and control plotting, a drafter plotted field notes and prepared plans, and a professional land surveyor calculated boundaries and provided professional oversight, it didn’t take long after automated drafting and surveying software took hold that the work it formerly took many people to complete could now be completed by one person. And now, with Robotic Total Stations and GPS, it’s becoming more commonplace to only have only one person working in the field.
But here’s the rub: Before the Great Recession hit, many professional land surveyors had not moved to use systems, both in the office and in the field, to increase productivity and reduce the total amount of employees required to complete their surveys. Since then, how the times they have a changed! With a lack of work and with no cash flow, many firms have been forced to cut to the bone and work with skeleton crews. Some, like myself, had invested in “Solo-Surveyor” equipment like Robotic Total Stations and GPS, so they could work with as little as one person (if there was work at all).
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