As materials cost and availability eases, the greatest issue facing the construction industry in the medium-term will be skills shortages, particularly given the number of people that have left the industry in recent years and entrants into the industry each year are a drop in the ocean and nowhere near enough to compensate.

There were 2.13 million workers in UK construction in 2023 Q1, which is 1.9% lower than in 2022 Q4 and 2.5% than a year ago according to the Office for National Statistics. UK construction employment in 2023 Q1 was also 7.8% lower than in 2019 Q4, pre-pandemic, and 12.3% lower than at the recent peak in 2019 Q1. This also means that in 2023 Q1 there were 297,437 fewer workers in UK construction than in 2019 Q1.

I'm interested in:

• Construction Products Association
• CPA