There are, potentially, a few subtle messages in the latest employment survey data.

The proportion of respondents describing themselves as self-employed fell 10%, from 14% to 4% between January and June this year. For the first time since the surveys commenced, no respondents described themselves as working part time.  This appears to support the result of more than 40% of self-employed geoscientists securing less than 10% of their desired workload.

30% of unemployed and underemployed respondents reported that they are looking for alternate employment outside the geoscience professions, up from about 25% in January.

These sorts of haven’t been seen in the employment surveys before and suggest that self-employed geoscientists, contractors and consultants, have been profoundly affected by the current downturn.

Are you a contractor or consultant with a story you can share?  Post a comment here or on the AIG Linkedin Group, or send an email.