'Serious concerns' for construction sector jobs

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has today expressed “serious concerns” for thousands of jobs following publication of the CSO Quarterly Production in Building and Construction Index.

Responding to the Index, Don O’Sullivan, director of tendering and contracting at the CIF, said: “The results from the CSO indicate that the fall off in construction activity is actually worse than thought and that we’re facing further significant job losses on the civil engineering and general contracting sides of the industry over the coming 12 months”.

“The Index, which compares activity in Quarter 1 2009 with the corresponding period last year, doesn’t factor in the significant decline in activity in contracting arising from the dwindling pipeline of public infrastructure projects.

“The impact of this decline will likely not show up until the Quarter 4 2009 and Quarter 1 2010 figures are published but on the ground it is resulting in further job losses at all levels of the industry, including senior management, professionals such as architects, engineers and surveyors, craft workers, operatives and in related sectors.

“Companies have been holding their workforces together on the basis of announced Government infrastructure spending but this isn’t happening at the moment and the flow of new projects is at a virtual standstill.

“The vast majority of current activity therefore relates to ongoing projects and once these are completed, the prospects for civil engineering and general contracting firms are poor. The gravity of the situation is underlined by the huge falloff in the pre-tender design and engineering work which is required before any new project can be brought to the market.”