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Are you busy? Informal survey.

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flgulfcoasteng

flgulfcoasteng

Structural
Joined
Nov 13, 2007
Messages
30
Location
US
I thought I would start a thread to get a feel for how everyone is doing right now. If you don’t mind sharing give us your:

1. Location & discipline
2. Level of bidding or proposal activity
3. Level of work currently with commitments / in progress
4. Trending up or down?

I’ll begin with:
1. Southwest Florida, Structural
2. 2 in Feb, 3 in March, 0 MTD in April. (2 per week is typical in a healthy market)
3. 2 single family residential, 0 commercial, 0 multifamily
4. On par with 2009 levels (looks like it may get slower though). Approx. 25% of 2008 levels. No advertised employment opportunities locally.
 
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US Southwest, Civil

lots of marketing and lots of competition

very busy, but partly because we layed off a bunch of people already and nobody left to do the work. Also busy because of ARRA money funding a large government project

looks like I will be employed at least till the end of the year
 
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1. Gulf South, Structural
2. Probably averaging a proposal per week.
3. Very steady work right now.
4. Got some really nice projects on the way. Hiring another employee.
 
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1. North and Central Florida, primarily, but we have projects in South Florida and West Florida, Construction and Structural Forensics
2. Proposals by request. No marketing. Mostly referrals.
3. Steady work in specialized area. Keeping 5 engineers gainfully employed.
4. Trend is consistent with expected upward trend.
 
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1. Los Angeles / Civil Engineering
2. Proposals were higher than normal for month of March and Feburary.
3. Work is slow, but some big projects are getting financed finally. Some mansion types of demo the mansion and build crazier mansion. And some large low income housing projects.
4. Trend is way up. Even my partner who is not happy with the situation said today that proposals are way up. I am the one keeping track and know this as truth job #'s and money wise.

Civil Development Group, LLC
Los Angeles Civil Engineering specializing in Hillside Grading
 
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East Midlands. UK Automotive.

Lots of quoting but everything for some time in the near future.

Currently running at about 40% capacity, but everything is a struggle waiting on data, orders etc.

Hard to say I feel it is still very much in the balance, it could tip one way or the other.
 
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1. Gulf South. Civil/Structural
2. Proposals have increased. Activity is high.
3. Workload is heavy. We're 70% Oil and Gas. A few ARRA projects are sustaining a good bit of overtime.
4. Trending up.
 
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Puerto Rico - engineering services for major aerospace co.
We have had some slow down, our 2nd major client has cut back in the work allot. I personaly am pretty busy. (But not at this very moment.)
Some improvement is expected.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
 
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1. DC Capital Region, Mechanical
2. 2-3 proposals a week
3. Overwhelming level
4. Continually increasing
 
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1. NJ, PA, DE
2. 3-4 calls a week
4. 40-60 hrs a week
5. Up

I set a record with last week's invoicing, and invoiced out $8k. Normally it's 2-3k. I have 9 open inquiries on my desk right now, and about $10k booked for May (I specialize in small gigs). Recession is over in my area.
 
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1. WA, Civil,Structural

2. 3 per month, up from 1 for the past 12 months

3. 20-40 hours/week starting next week

4. Starting to go up, slowly

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask
 
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1. Central U.S., all disciplines
2. 2-3 small proposals /week
3. About 50% chargeable
4. Up slightly

Already had some layoffs. If the 50% doesn't improve very soon, more will be forthcoming.

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.
 
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1. WA, Structural, mostly residential
2. Most of my work is word of mouth, so I rarely do competitive proposals. Maybe 1 out of 10 jobs.
3. 20 to 30 hours per week, enough for me
4. About average. My only slow time was Oct. thru Dec. 09.
 
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A couple of hits on proposals and we now have theoretical backlog in to the fall.

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.
 
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1. Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, NC, SC - Structural

2. I'm not privvy to this info

3. I'm as busy as I've ever been in my four years as an engineer.

4. Only getting more busy!

Just as a side note, I'm feeling extremely overworked for the compensation I'm receiving. I've been at 55-60+ hours/week for a few months now, and I'm just now getting back to the salary I had 2 years ago. That does not make me, my hard work, or all the extra hours I put in feel appreciated. I think I only stay because I love the projects I get to work on.
 
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1. Midwest USA, Structural
2. 1-4 a week. Varies. We do a lot of small stuff.
3. work level: Low
4. Trending: Down

We do most our work in the state with the highest unemployment rate, so that is probably the crux of the problem. Had a fairly busy March-May, but June and onward isn't looking good. Backlog has dried up.
 
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We have some backlog, but projects that we have been awarded seem to stall repeatedly so cash flow is not there.

Alan
“The engineer's first problem in any design situation is to discover what the problem really is.” Unk.
 
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1. Based in the midwest: oil & gas-proj, const & eng mgmt
2. 2 proposals in this month
3. 1 major contract, 1 minor contract, 1 pending award
4. 2010 is trending about 20% higher (in volume) than 2009




Greg Lamberson, BS, MBA
Consultant - Upstream Energy
Website:
 
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Update from April:

1. NJ, PA, DE
2. 3-4 calls a week
4. 40-60 hrs a week
5. Still Up

 
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1. Welding - Primarily southeast
2. Bit of fossil, multiple large nuclear.
3. 50 hours typical, 1 pending fossil award, 2 nuclear, 1 pending nuclear.
4. Fossil as a whole down, Nuclear up, FGD's and natural gas up.
 
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