The Office of National Statistics has released an article that throws some light on the figures for construction jobs.

I for one have been rather confounded by the construction jobs figures which seem to have understated the devastation on the ground, particularly in the wake of the collapse in house building.

Indeed I have also been a bit bamboozled by the construction output figures for a similar set of reasons.

While this article doesn’t put to rest all my concerns, it provides a useful run through of the background and some of the thinking at the Office of National Statistic. It also provides more insight into the problems within the data caused by difficulties in measuring the numbers of migrant workers within construction.

One comment I would make is that it is worth recognising that the analysts have not taken account of the effect of rises and falls in the various sectors of construction. The shape of job shedding will be influenced by which sector gets hit most, as the proportion of jobs per £1 million of construction work done varies quite a bit.

Basically refurbishment work is employment heavy while civils is employment light. So the pattern of the collapse of workload will influence the shape of job losses.