Industry Challenges for Cultural Heritage Consulting Firms in North America

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Transformations in Professional Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

A main challenge confronting archaeologists today is the uncertainty surrounding the availability, viability, and sustainability of careers. As such, this paper provides an economic overview of the cultural heritage consulting (CRM/HRM) industry, the largest employment sector for archaeologists, in the United States and Canada. The industry and its challenges are discussed through a labor economics perspective. The US industry is comprised approximately of 1,400 firms in 2,000 offices, has annual revenue of $1.1 billion, and employs 9,100 archaeologists augmented by a pool of approximately 3,700 project-hire field technicians. Despite the currently high demand for compliance consulting services, partially fueled by large but temporary federal legislation, the industry has been shrinking with 10-year mean annual growth of −0.5%. Industry firms are having difficulty finding enough employees to meet the demand, yet there are over 10,000 new graduates on the job market every year. The CRM/HRM industry has plenty of jobs but few careers, and graduates are choosing to work in other industries with more stability, benefits, better pay, easier work, and a home base. Thus, both employees and companies are struggling. How can firms be financially sustainable and still provide career paths for junior employees?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Transformations in Professional Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38478.0