It's no secret that consulting engineers have been hit hard by the economic slowdown. Some companies closed completely while many companies had to lay off technical staff and institute days off. I imagine that the annual bonuses received by the employees of these companies have also decreased. The dynamics and operations of the engineering firm have always intrigued me, first as an engineer, then as an employee of a few firms, and finally as a client/client. How and why did we move from a time when businesses seemed to come up on every corner to office closures and a lack of important work? Should this happen? And how can we revive the industry and isolate ourselves from another economic disaster?
History
In the United States, most major infrastructure projects are built by the government. And most of the improvements built before the Second World War were run by engineers working for the government. It seems that after the Second World War, there was an increase in the number of engineering firms. And the management of the design and construction of major construction projects has shifted from government staff to engineering firms. Having not lived through the period immediately following the war, I do not know exactly why it happened. One of the reasons could be the significant increase in the number of buildings built after the war - perhaps the government did not have the staff to generate and manage this volume of projects. Businesses have therefore been hired to supplement existing staff. What appeared to be happening over the next few decades has been moving to many small cities from in-house engineering to rental engineering.
The RISE
In the coming decades, more and more engineering companies emerged as suburbs moved to the United States and more and more small and medium-sized cities have reduced their staff to hiring consultants. Not only did these companies provide planning, design, and construction management services to the government, but they also provided these services to the private development sector. There was so much work generated by the real estate boom that many companies specialized only in the provision of private development services.
These were good times for engineering firms. Over many years, government grant programs have funded the design and construction of treatment plants, housing has provided regular work, and several transportation bills have been used to design and build the infrastructure.
The fall
We can all imagine what happened when the economy fell. Housing and development have been interrupted, removing a major source of income for many businesses. Companies that have come to rely solely on private development have closed their doors. Even the federal stimulus package did not help much. ARRA funds were meant for "ready-to-go" projects, while companies might have had the chance to get a construction engineering job, but there was no money in that design program.
Thus, while some companies avoided the complete closure of their business, many could not avoid having to close satellite offices or lay off staff.
What's wrong with fall?
Some people might want to explain themselves easily by explaining the current situation and blaming the economy. But there are many things behind this quick summary. And ignoring problems can be detrimental to all of us because it has the potential to undermine our profession.
One reason that seems obvious is that businesses made money by doing the same thing over and over again. Many companies have taken the position of why change a good thing? We see an example of this in the development of GIS. When GIS deployed in the mainstream during the 1980s and the 1990s, few companies jumped on board and integrated it into their service delivery. Perhaps the idea was why to take the time to charge hours to train people in a technology that customers do not ask for. So, professionals in other areas such as planning started working with GIS, and finally a whole new.
