According to the Telegraph the general financial collapse will lead to around 1000 archaeology job losses in the UK alone this year. It is interesting to think of archaeology as artificially inflated, contract work having grown to accommodate the unsustainable building industry over the past years.

A friend of mine teaches primarily the children in families with less than favorable immigration status. Recently some of these families have been considering making a move back to Latin America. The demise of construction means that work is scare to the point that home (in this case Guatemala) seems the only option. Somehow this story has defined the extent of the financial crisis for me. The complete lack of work and the desire to get to the US/Spain etc was the general theme of most conversations I had with Guatemalans while working there in 2003.

Thus it seems that archaeology is in the same boat: with construction not likely to pick up for a while (and perhaps never reach the same levels again) are we destined to go back to a time when an undergraduate degree in archaeology led no specific practical carrier?

On this chilly night marking undergraduate essays, I wonder where each of them will end up. I wonder where I will end up for that matter.