But pessimism still affecting smaller practices with a balance expecting to shed staff over the next three months
Architects’ optimism around future workloads has rebounded after three consecutive months of sinking confidence, according to RIBA’s latest Future Trends report.
Sentiment among RIBA members towards the amount of work they expect over the next three months jumped from an index of -9 in May to -1 in June, the first rise in confidence since February.
However, the overall balance of workload expectations is still in the negative, meaning respondents on average still expect workloads to dip slightly in the coming three months.
The survey found 24% of practices anticipate increasing workloads, 25% expect a decline and 51% expect workloads to remain stable.
Optimism is heavily concentrated in large and medium sized practices, which returned an index of +44, a jump of some 30 points since May, while small practices, the bulk of respondents, recorded a three-point increase to -10.
The regional outlook has also broadly improved, with the South of England’s index rising from -4 to +12, the North of England’s from -10 to -5 and the Midlands and East Anglia’s from -21 to -6.
But confidence in both London and Wales and the West continued to slide, the former recording an index of -13 and the latter an index of zero.
And despite a broadly improving outlook for workload confidence, the index for future staffing levels accelerated its decline last month to record the lowest figure so far this year.
June’s staffing index of -3, the fourth successive monthly fall, means practices on average expect to employ fewer staff over the next three months, although larger practices recorded an 14-point improvement with an index of +32.
Smaller practices were markedly less confident with an index of -9, six points lower than in May.
Meanwhile, the outlook for workload expectations in the private housing sector fell again from -11 to -16, recording the lowest index since the end of 2023.
The index for the public sector held steady at zero, rose by seven points to -8 for the community sector and rose from -1 to +6 for the commercial sector.
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