Irish construction industry set for major job losses
Thursday, June 05, 2008
A report carried out by the employment and training authority Foras Áiseanna Saothair (FAS) into construction and contracting forecasts that 65, 400 of the 279,000 currently employed within the construction industry in Ireland will lose their jobs by the end of 2009. The gloomy prediction comes in the midst of the economic downturn worsening and the value of new property declining. An article in the Irish Independent who obtained the FAS report stated that losses will affect…
- 35,800 craft workers such as bricklayers, carpenters, and plasterers.
- 9,000 non-craft skilled workers (scaffolders, roofers etc).
- 10,600 general workers.
- 2,100 professionals (archi-tects, quantity surveyors etc).
The FAS report also states in the same time frame 20,600 jobs in other areas of construction will be created which include the building projects earmarked under the National Development Plan (NDP).
With the decline in construction not expected to change until 2013, the Government faces the task of retraining redundant workers and providing training outlets for the thousands of individuals, mainly young men, who had planned a career in construction.
Michael Brown CIOB deputy chief executive said, “Whilst this report indicates a sharp decline in construction work in Ireland, it does throw up opportunities for Irish workers to take advantage of the large public projects the UK has in the pipeline. Outside of the London Olympics development the UK has the Crossrail transport project, the London Building Schools for the Future programme and the need for 3 million homes by 2020 in England alone. The results from our recent skills shortage research show that people possessing crafts/trades, senior and middle management skills are highly sought after in the UK industry.
”Outside of the UK there are opportunities in many other countries and we are seeing a lot of international talent moving towards Dubai and the booming construction industry in the middle east.”
(Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/quarter-of-building-workers-to-lose-jobs-1396164.html)
