Browsed by
Tag: underemployment

Construction redundancies remain high while vacancies remain low

Construction redundancies remain high while vacancies remain low

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…

Read More Read More

More home sellers, fewer home letters – a housing market in flux

More home sellers, fewer home letters – a housing market in flux

How should we read yesterday’s Rightmove figures showing the slowest ever March pick up in asking prices? They appear to be consistent with much of what else we are seeing in the market – a growing body of evidence that the recent bounce back in the housing market is faltering (see previous blog). The key factor slowing the rise in asking prices (see graph) Rightmove isolated was a rise in properties coming onto the market – up 34% on the…

Read More Read More

Fewer redundancy in construction, but the future remains bleak on jobs

Fewer redundancy in construction, but the future remains bleak on jobs

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?