General construction work includes:

• site preparation including demolition, test drilling and boring
• building of complete constructions or parts thereof and civil engineering (including all types of buildings, bridges, tunnels, pipelines, roads, airfields, sports facilities, water projects etc)
• building installation and completion (including joinery, wiring, insulation, plumbing, plastering, painting and glazing)

Total employment in construction has slowly increased over the last 10 years to over 2 million.  The number of those who are self-employed in the UK construction sector has increased significantly by 28% between 2000 and 2004.  Future employment is the sector is forecast to grow by 2.3% per annum until 2008.

After a recent rapid growth, total employment in the sector is anticipated to remain fairly static over the next 10 years.  Skilled Trades occupations dominate the occupational distribution of employment – almost 2-in-5 workers are in this occupational group.

The shift from strictly demarcated trades towards a more generalist, multi-skilled approach to the construction process is a current and on-going issue for the industry.

The highest percentage of employers experiencing difficulty recruiting skilled staff was in the North West (78%) and the lowest was in the East (47%).  The highest percentage of employers reporting at least one unfilled long-term vacancy was in the West Midlands.

The construction workforce is 90% male compared with 54% of the total workforce and 98% white compared with 96% of the whole workforce.  The CITB-ConstructionSkills strategy is to increase the annual apprentice recruitment places by 10% for women, and Black and Asian people.

According to CITB-ConstructionSkills, the construction industry needs to recruit and retain over 88,000 trained people each year for the next five years.  The industry will, therefore, have to recruit from non-traditional groups, with women and ethnic minorities expected to account for half its growth in the workforce over the next ten years. 

Employers are satisfied with the skill level of their workforce, but 50% believe that new employees lack certain skills.  There is a significant drive towards a fully qualified workforce which will continue to a central issue in recruitment and retention.

A continuing problem for the sector is the lack of available work placements for trainees and new entrants resulting in many not getting fully qualified.

Recent research on the construction sector has mainly focused on under-represented groups such as women, people with a disability and people from ethnic minority groups and their roles within the sector.