Almost 50,000 extra construction workers will be required annually to meet growing demand over the next four years, with the biggest growth in recruits expected among steel and metal workers, plant mechanics and scaffolders.
According to the latest outlook from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the industry needs to recruit 239,300 extra workers between now and 2029, the equivalent of an additional 47,860 per year.
The new analysis is an increase on the projected demand for workers since the CITB’s previous outlook – then known as the Construction Skills Network report – published in 2023.
That report predicted that an additional 224,900 construction workers would be needed to meet projected demand by 2027, equivalent to an extra 44,980 recruits each year.
Overall, the latest CITB report said the construction workforce will expand to 2.75 million over the five-year period, representing an annual average growth rate of 0.8 per cent.
Almost half of the total increase is predicted to be in skilled trades, with the strongest annual average growth expected for steel and metal workers (1.5 per cent), plant mechanics and fitters (1.3 per cent) and scaffolders (1.2 per cent).
Among professional services, civil engineers are expected to see the highest growth at 1.3 per cent, along with surveyors at 1.1 per cent.
Within managerial and support staff occupations, construction project managers are anticipated to be the most in demand, with growth averaging 1.1 per cent a year.
However, the construction labour market continued to face challenges last year as companies struggled to recruit in the face of a persistent shortage of skilled and experienced workers, the analysis found.
Construction employment declined by 2.3 per cent last year, equivalent to the loss of 63,700 workers, while job vacancies remained high.
Across the UK, the fastest growth in construction employment will be in England, which is expected to see an average increase of 0.8 per cent over the next five years.
Scotland is forecast to follow, with average growth of 0.7 per cent, while growth in Northern Ireland and Wales is likely to be slower at 0.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.
In the foreword to the latest outlook, CITB chief executive Tim Balcon warned that unless the construction sector changed how it attracted, trained and retained talent, the country would not have the workforce it needed to build the infrastructure of the future.
“If industry doesn’t change it will stay on a path where job vacancies are difficult to fill, losing aging workers will lead to an increasing loss of valuable expertise, and CITB will continue to highlight the need for around 240,000 extra workers over the next five years,” he said.
“It also means that the opportunities identified in this report to build new homes, infrastructure and improve the energy efficiency of buildings will not be realised.
“Employers will struggle to find skilled, site-ready individuals, leading to project delays and increased costs.”
Appropriate training was key to developing the workforce the nation needed, Balcon said.
“Although there is a wide range of training that already takes place, the fact that the construction industry continually struggles to fill vacancies points towards a training system that isn’t making a good enough link to jobs,” he said.
But he was optimistic that the announcement last year of up to 32 Homebuilding Skills Hubs would bring “profound changes” to the way training was delivered, with hubs expected to train people in trades including bricklaying, roofing and plastering in the areas of greatest housing need.
Source: Construction News