A first reading of the latest set of jobs figures provides some encouragement both for the nation at large and for those engaged in construction. Nationally unemployment was down and employment was up, with the rate of those aged 16 or older rising to 70.7% from 70.5% in the three months to March. Encouragingly the improvement came from more full-time employed jobs, rather than from self-employment or part-time work.
Construction job losses are starting once again to mount with a further 9,000 knocked of the number of workforce jobs in the final quarter of last year, as measured by the national statisticians. This means that at the end of 2010 there were about 2,128,000 construction jobs measured compared with 2,180,000 at the end of 2009 – a drop of just over 50,000. That takes the number of jobs lost from peak in September 2008 to 246,000, when numbers peaked…
The number of jobs in the construction industry fell by 17,000 in the third quarter of this year despite the continued swell in work resulting from the now fading effects of the economic stimulus. Indeed the rather lacklustre set of labour market figures released today may well be read by some as an early sign of momentum fading in the economy at large. Certainly the drop in construction job numbers will lead many to suspect that firms are already trimming…
The rate of construction redundancies in the third quarter of this year returned closer to pre-recession levels with “just” 18,000 employees recorded as being made redundant in the three months July to September. And if we didn’t know what we do know about the future we might suggest that the latest employment figures taken as a whole provide reasons to be positive. Across the economy as a whole, more people have jobs, fewer are unemployment and the claimant count is…
The Nationwide house price survey showing a drop of 0.9% following a 0.5% drop in July adds yet more weight to the growing view that house prices are sagging and are set to sag further. The Halifax index peaked in March and fell monthly up to a minor rally in July. The Acadmetrics index has been heading south since March, although it similarly saw a gentle uplift of 0.1% in July. Hometrack went 0.1% negative in July and the drop…
Construction lost 63,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year and has shed more than 300,000 since the recession bit hard after Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008. The latest employment figures are based on a slightly different assessment of the industry (Standard Industrial Classification 2007 is used) and paint an even gloomy picture of the trajectory of construction jobs than did the previous series (see graph). At peak in September 2008 the statisticians now reckon there were 2,364,000…
As the real business of governing the UK begins to wind up again, the latest employment figures will do little to cheer the incoming government as it prepares to put chalk marks on where deep public sector cuts will be made. The overall figures showed the rise of unemployment continuing above the 2.5 million mark. But equally as worrying is the swelling number of part-time workers that is hiding a bubble of underemployment. Over the first quarter of this year…
For the optimists in the construction industry there is much hope to be gleaned from the latest employment figures. Equally for the pessimists there is plenty within the numbers to fret about. So what should we make of the latest batch of labour market numbers that, among other things, show that 163,000 redundacies were recorded in construction in 2009?
The latest employment figures show a continued shocking rate of redundacies in construction with another 42,000 jobs shed from the industry in the second quarter of this year. That makes a total of 170,000 recorded job losses over the past 12 months.
The post credit crunch squeeze on the UK economy does appear to be encouraging more Eastern Europeans to call it a day and return home according to the latest information produced by the official statisticians at ONS. This does fit with the anecdotal evidence which suggests that the weak pound and better opportunities at home have made many foreign workers reconsider their stay in the UK. That said, the flow of Eastern Europeans into the UK still outweighs the numbers…