DETERMINANTS OF THE SPANISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY: EVOLUTION AND EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN

Eva Parga-Dans Institute of Heritage Sciences

(Incipit-CSIC), Spain

RESEARCH CONTEXT

SPANISH

ARCHAEOLOGICAL

LABOUR MARKET

?

?

?

?

Methods

1. Qualitative step. Expert panel, secondary sources, 107 open-ended interviews, case studies.

2. Quantitative step to collect information about labor market. Survey (personal interviews with CEO or senior VP) 80% response rate (217 over 273 firms).

Survey Procedure

A database was constructed

Telephone contact

Assited questionnaire using an on-line application

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5

Telephone survey

Codifying and processing the information

Production of global frequencies

Defining the boundaries of Spanish archaeological sector

5

Results

Spain“Spanish Heritage Historic Law” 19853.000 archaeologists (aprox.)273 firms (2009)

Research Context

7

- Products (Services): - Heritage management protection (documentation, intervention,

enhancement). It requires public authorization- Expert consultancy- Dissemination activities

A complex sectoral system (I)

8

Spanish Market Developing Process

Number of firms created per year (total number of firms).

Firm Profile

- Labour Market: 2.358 people working in archaeological companies in 2009

- Small firm size (25% have just one employee)- Archaeological firms have a highly localized scope (73% of these

organizations work in the region in which they are located).- Low turnover (38% do not reach 100.000€ per year)

Business trend

Archaeological industry is a recent market activity in Spain that had registered a fast growing process: 273 firms in 2009. However, if faces mounting inter-firm competition due to economic slowdown.

DEMAND PROFILE

Main clients, data expressed in percentages

HUMAN CAPITAL

Human capital educational level, data expressed in porcentages

Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe Project

14

From 2009 to 2013

In 2013: Data Collection

Survey to collect information about Spanish archaeological labor market:- Design the questionnaire- Online application (July-August 2013)- 233 active firms (over 273 in 2009)- Survey oriented to other organizations where archaeologists

are working - Telephone Survey

Survey Procedure

Survey Procedure

Survey Procedure

Organization NºCompany 106Self employee 32Public administration 4Museum 1Foundation 3Total 146

Preliminary results

Preliminary Results (II)

- Firm size: 57% of organizations has between 1 and 5 employees, 69% of those state that had reduced their size since 2007.

- Turnover:

- 45% do not reach100.000 € per year (38% in 2009)- 77% state 2012 turnover is lower than 2010-2011

- Main clients are construction sector and public administrations (the same as in 2009) and general public is becoming more important

- Adaptation initiatives are required if they want survive:- Diversifying - Specializing- Moving towards other cultural activities

- Basic knowledge and technologies. Include different areas: archaeology, biology, restoration, topography, geo-spatial technologies, etc.

- Knowledge and learning processes: this is an emergent sector and the development of techniques and know-how is something new.

- High qualified level. 71% of employees have a degree and of them 16.2% are PhDs.

Reinvent or Perish Dilemma

- Archaeological sector in Spain is an emergent activity that had registered a fast growing process: 273 firms in 2009.

- However, it faces mounting inter-firm competition due to economic slowdown and the dependence of the construction sector.

- High qualified human capital and knowledge-base activity are the main opportunities in the changing environmental conditions.

Conclusions

Thank you!