NEWS
Report { THE PLANNER CAREERS SURVEY 2020
By Simon Wicks
A
lmost a quarter of planners have lost earnings as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, with most losses concentrated in the private sector. The Planner’s annual Careers Survey found that 23 per cent of planners had lost between 1 and 100 per cent of their earnings since the first Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020, with most of these losing up to 20 per cent. Close to half of respondents (45 per cent) said that heir jobs had changed as a result of Covid-19, and six in 10 said they had worked solely from home since the start of the pandemic. Forty-six per cent said that they now preferred this to working in an office. A similar number (43 per cent) reported that they were working longer hours since the first lockdown last March, and four in 10 planners said that they had become more productive. “It might take longer than when we were in the office to get some information, and there are endless Teams meetings. But this year I have delivered at least as much if not more than ever,” said one public sector planner from the south-west of England with more than 20 years’ experience.
4
0%
1-10%
11-20%
76.99%
7.11%
7.11%
21-30%
31-40%
41-50%
2.51%
1.26%
1.26%
51-60%
61-70%
71-80%
0.84%
0.42%
0.42%
81-90%
91-99%
100%
0.42%
0%
Slightly more than 250 RTPI members responded to the 2020/21 Planner Jobs Careers Survey in November, which focused on planners’ workplace experience of the Covid-19 crisis. Fifty-eight per cent of respondents were from the public sector and 36 per cent from the private sector, the two largest groups. Fifty-eight per cent were women and 41 per cent men. The picture they provided was of a profession that adapted quickly to changes forced by the pandemic, with a rapid transition to remote working and a swift embrace of digital technology. We also got a picture of public sector bodies being able to flex more than their private
1.67% sector counterparts to accommodate planners whose regular work was disrupted or halted by the pandemic. For example, 77 per cent of respondents overall did not experience a loss of income as a result of the pandemic. But fewer than 5 per cent of public sector planners reported a loss of income, compared with 50 per cent of private sector planners. The bulk of these losses were 20 per cent or under, indicating that the furlough scheme was employed more widely in the private than the public sector. Of the nine redundancies reported by respondents, eight occurred in the private sector.
Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2021
Lost earnings and longer hours, but technology saves the day: How Covid-19 has affected planning
TH E PL AN N E R \ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1
4-6 News_31-Jan-2021_The Planner.indd 4
15/01/2021 11:08
