MSNBC confirms what every architect in Los Angeles and around the country already knew: 2009 was an absolutely gruesome year for the profession and for related trades.

According to the site's year-end tally of job losses, no field was hit as hard as architecture. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the number of "employed architects" in the U.S. dropped from 230,000 through three quarters of 2008 to 189,000 at the same point in 2009.

Following architects on MSNBC's list of job losses were carpenters at No. 2. Construction workers ranked No. 7.

There was a long-term glimmer of hope, however: BLS projections suggest that employment in architecture and engineering will grow about 10% through 2018.

-- Christopher Hawthorne

Photo by flickr user Martin Stabenfeldt.