Talk of a growing labour ‘ticking time bomb’ within the construction industry is nothing new but the latest report – The Real Face of Construction 2020 – from the Chartered Institute of Building gives some startling clarity to the situation.
Within a decade or so the construction industry will see a big loss of workers as a group, who are in their late 40s and early 50s, are due to reach retirement age.
Whilst people are retiring in the industry every day the key problem with this generation of workers is that there are not enough immediate successors to replace them.
Our lack of interest in careers in the construction industry, a rapid increase in school leavers staying on in further education and progressing to university, a decrease in apprenticeships, and a recession throughout the 1990s have left the construction industry depleted of future talent.
The good news is that although we are lacking workers in their early 40s, the figures for those in their late 20s and 30s are much better as the steps taken by the industry to encourage people to take up careers in construction have had a positive result.
Although, it is worth noting that for the group in their 20s and 30s a large portion of these are in London, which has a remarkably different age profile.
Plus, the number of London construction workers who are migrant workers is also high, the highest concentration throughout the country – approximately 50% of London’s construction workforce is non-UK born.
Indeed, 37% of the workforce hail from other EU countries so clearly Brexit could change this over time if recruits stop coming from the rest of Europe.
Considerable efforts are being made within the industry to reverse the problem including initiatives to hold onto older workers for longer and to support groups such as those leaving the services, women and ex- offenders into a career in construction.
There is also a growing demand for more modern methods of construction that involve factory-based prefabrication and offsite construction.