A survey of 460 respondents by Seek found that the average salary for an architect in Australia with 7.7 years’ experience is $58,000.
This figure rose to $89,000 for the top 10 per cent of respondents, who averaged 13 years in the profession and worked for four practices, spending 5.9 years in their current position.
Respondents, who ranged from graduate architects and building designers, to project architects, senior architects, technicians and urban designers, said that they worked an average of 40 hours a week.
Sixty one per cent of those surveyed were male and 39 per cent female with women earning, on average, 88 per cent of the average male salary.
Ninety five per cent were in full time work, with 29 per cent based in Sydney, 27 per cent in Melbourne and Brisbane home for 15 per cent.
The survey is part of Seek’s Great Australian Paycheck in which Seek users report on their salaries anonymously so that people know what to expect pay-wise when looking for a new role. This means that the results are the results are constantly updated.
A separate Seek survey found property professionals to be among the top five most sought-after staff by employers on its website.?
More jobs were advertised in the property sector than in the legal sector, making its employees the fourth most sought-after, with only healthcare and medical, government and education and training staff more desired.
Krista Shearer, director at Sydney-based architectural recruiters Bespoke, told Architecture & Design that she knew of nine practices currently hiring for a variety of roles.
The number of jobs being advertised at the moment was “very positive” and signified a good start to the year, she said.
“We have some high end residential practices recruiting and that is hasn’t been happening for a while.”
Bruce Whetters, director at recruiter Bloomfield Tremayne, said that job advertisements for architectural positions have been “consistently rising” across the country since October, he said.
An increase in private sector investment on projects has driven a “very good proportion” of the newly-listed positions, Whetters said.
“In December we had a high number of positions listed right up until the last week,” he said.
