{"id":3404,"date":"2025-08-11T09:15:48","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T09:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:29:11","slug":"can-architectures-class-of-25-crack-the-job-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/11\/can-architectures-class-of-25-crack-the-job-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Can architecture’s class of ’25 crack the job market?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Graduates\"<\/div>\n

This summer will see thousands of young people in the UK<\/a> graduate from architecture<\/a> school, but they will find it tougher than ever to land a job afterwards. Amy Peacock<\/a> reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Starting a career in architecture has always been a long, arduous and competitive process, but in recent years it has become even harder to get a foot into the profession.<\/p>\n

George Smith has just completed a master’s degree at the Royal College of Art<\/a> and is set to graduate in September. To continue along the path to becoming a registered architect, he must now gain experience working in practice in a Part 2 role. His job search so far has been disheartening, to say the least.<\/p>\n

“The market is still bad since I was applying as a Part 1 [post-undergraduate] five years ago,” he told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“I was hoping I could finish and start working immediately, but it’s unlikely now,” he continued. “I have been applying to adverts from practices only advertising on Instagram \u2013 they have told me they’ve received over 100 applications in a few days.”<\/p>\n

“I sent out hundreds of portfolios and got less than 20 responses”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Smith’s experience echoes that of many architecture graduates in recent years, including Hamssini Sukumaran, who graduated with a master’s in architecture at Cardiff University<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n

“I sent out hundreds of portfolios and got less than 20 responses, and one interview,” she said.<\/p>\n

Sukumaran searched for a Part 2 job for nine months before considering alternative career paths. She now works for architecture-specialised PR firm Salt<\/a>, which she said is “more sustainable creatively, emotionally, financially” than architecture.<\/p>\n

“What I really enjoyed in architecture school was the narrative part, so I started thinking how I could use the transferable skills that I gained in different ways \u2013 that’s how I found comms and marketing in architecture,” Sukumaran said. “I’d never heard of it, no one talks about it at uni.”<\/p>\n

UK experienced its most competitive job market in 30 years in 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

Graduates are facing a tough environment across the board. Last year, the UK’s graduate job market was the most competitive in three decades, with 140 applications for every graduate vacancy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to job search site Indeed, UK university graduates this year are facing the toughest job market since 2018<\/a>. Indeed, and others, have claimed that artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) is a significant factor, with employers in white-collar industries like architecture seeking to cut costs by turning to the technology for tasks typically done by more junior staff.<\/p>\n

“Demand for graduates is inevitably going to go down, slightly because of economics but mainly because of AI and its effect on repetitive tasks, which are often entry-level tasks,” said architecture educator Jeremy Till, head of Central Saint Martins<\/a> school in London for 10 years until 2022.<\/p>\n

But while AI affects a broad range of jobs, architecture graduates are facing their own unique set of challenges, with additional compounding factors making it even harder to find employment.<\/p>\n