There is little doubt within the surveying profession that the challenge is to bring in more new licensed professional land surveyors. The demographic numbers are clear – a majority of current professional land surveyors report 30 or more years of experience with the corresponding age band at or near traditional retirement age. Surveying isn’t the only profession to face this challenge, nor is it limited to the U.S. surveying profession. The complexity of training and licensing and the lack of public awareness of the profession combine to make it difficult to adopt some of the strategies employed by other professions to attract new talent. That doesn’t mean those strategies won’t work; it simply means they could need some adjustment to fit the needs of this profession.

Is the “crisis” real? An informal poll on the POB website asked, “Are you hiring?” and offered choices from “Yes, adding licensed surveyors” to “No hiring, and permanent staff reduction likely.” Though not scientific, the result as this is being written was that no one said they expected permanent staff reductions. Exactly 50 percent said they were hiring some mix of licensed/unlicensed and permanent/temporary workers. The largest single response (28 percent) was “I would if I could find qualified applicants.” That suggests they are in the hiring mode, but unable to fill positions and, when combined with those who gave more definite indications of hiring, means 78 percent of respondents would be hiring.