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Anthropology & archaeology the worst college degrees in the U.S.?
A new, 11 October 2012, blog post by Jenna Goudreau of Forbes staff using data from the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University reports that anthropology and archaeology top the list of the worse college majors in economic terms.
Topping the list at No. 1, anthropology and archeology represent the worst choice of college major in economic terms. Recent college graduates of the major, those ages 22 to 26, can expect an unemployment rate of 10.5%, well above the national average. When they do land a job, the median salary is just $28,000, compared to a mechanical engineer’s initial earnings of $58,000.
U.S. compliance sector strong in 2012
U.S. compliance sector showing strong performance in 2012 (Photo credit: s_falkow)
The annual conference of the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA) was held a few days ago in Seattle, Washington. ACRA is the trade association for the heritage compliance sector in the United States. While the ACRA program is filled with valuable business topics, the real benefit of attending is gained from talking with company owners and senior employees in the hallways and at the many social events. People often say things about their businesses that they probably shouldn’t and one always comes away from the meeting with a wealth of information about competitors and the compliance sector as a whole.
My back hallway sample, probably representative although not statistical, indicated that the compliance sector in the United States is strong. Most companies reported that 2012 has been a good year for business, with more than a few companies reporting that this year will be their strongest year since the recession of 2008/2009–some reporting their best year ever. Strength is primarily coming from activity in the mining, electrical transmission, alternative energy, and oil/gas client sectors. This pattern of strong performance appears to be geographically uniform, although there are some areas of the country doing better than others due to geographical factors (e.g. locations of oil fields and mineral resources). There are, however, a few gaps in the compliance sector’s overall strong business performance. A few firms reported that they are still having difficult times and have yet to really rebound from the recession four years ago. What is interesting about this is that a few of these firms are well known firms that have been market-share leaders in the past.
The power firms in heritage consulting
Engineering News-Record recently released its list of The Top 200 Environmental Firms. Published annually, this year’s list is based on 2011 revenue.
| Rank | Company | Heritage Services | Revenue (million) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CH2M HILL Ltd. | Yes | $3,835 |
| 2 | URS Corp. | Yes | $3,362 |
| 3 | Veolia Environnement SA | No | $3,294 |
| 4 | Bechtel Corp. | No | $2,731 |
| 5 | Tetra Tech Inc. | Yes | $2,050 |
| 6 | AECOM Technology Corp | Yes | $1,768 |
| 7 | EnergySolutions Inc. | No | $1,752 |
| 8 | The Shaw Group Inc. | Yes | $1,559 |
| 9 | Fluor Corp. | No | $1,236 |
| 10 | Kiewit Corp. | No | $1,160 |
Half of the top ten firms on the list provide in-house compliance services for heritage resources. On a similar list of design firms, seven of the top ten firms were in-house providers of heritage services.
Unfortunately, what most people want to know about these firms isn’t available: how much of their overall revenue comes from their heritage consulting activities. While most of these companies are publically-traded companies and report their financials, the filings are not fine enough to go down to the level of heritage services. Read more…
Heritage Business Journal 