Total employment in construction has slowly increased over the last 10 years.  The number of those who are self-employed in the UK construction sector have increased significantly by 28% between 2000 and 2004.  In comparison, direct employment in the sector has increased by 1% over the same period.

After recent rapid growth, total employment covered in the sector is anticipated to remain fairly static over the next 10 years.  This sector has very high shares of self-employment.  In 2004, more than 35% of workers covered by CITB-ConstructionSkills were self-employed.  Skilled trades dominate the occupational distribution of employment: almost 2-in-5 workers in CITB-ConstructionSkills are in this occupational group.

There are 201,100 enterprises generating £152 billion of turnover.  The number of private contractors in the sector has decreased overall for the period 1994-2004 in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.  The South East has the highest number of firms (32,046), compared to the North East which has only 4,634.  The number of firms with less than 7 employees has also decreased since 1994, from approximately 184,500 firms to 153,500 firms.  In contrast, larger organisations have increased significantly.  The number of firms with over 1,200 employees has double over the 1994-2004 period.

In 2002, average gross weekly earnings of full-time male manual workers were £411.10, compared to £611.30 for the counterparts in non-manual work.

Source:  Working Futures 2006, DTI 2005,  Sector Skills Agreement for Construction – England 2005 and Data provided by CITB-ConstructionSkills 2005

For more data on employment trends in the sector see:

UK employment in construction, 1984-2004

Construction employment and output in the UK, 1984-2003

Employment levels and shares by gender and employment status, 1994-2014