Report: 35,000 construction jobs to go by 2008

Numbers employed in the Construction sector could fall by 35,000 between now and 2008, this is according to research conducted by Davy Stockbrokers.

However, the research also indicates that these job losses will be offset by 15,000 new jobs in commercial property development and infrastructure.

Davy Stockbrokers says that the key issues affecting the economy as a whole are the size of the adjustment in the housing market and the capacity of the rest of the economy to counterbalance the downturn in housing.

House completions are expected to fall from just over 88,000 in 2006 to 80,000 in 2007 and 65,000 in 2008. That is a cumulative 25% decline in the volume of output of a sector that employs about 10% of the total workforce.

Research suggests that overall employment growth is forecast to slow to 1% and GNP growth to 3% in 2008. If achieved this will be a strong performance in a year when new housing output is set to fall by almost 20%.

It also implies that the rest of the economy will have to grow by 6% to achieve this overall 3% growth target.