Housing ‘remains the weakest link’

House building is now the weakest element of the construction sector which has continued to contract — cutting jobs every month over the last five years.

The latest Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index reveals that housing is now the weakest of the three construction sub-sectors, with commercial and civil engineering also continuing to register ongoing declines.

The seasonally adjusted index, designed to track changes in total construction activity, fell to 45.4 in April, from 46.7 in March, to signal an acceleration in the rate of contraction in activity — the sharpest fall since last October.