Construction industry facing 'workforce time bomb' - 01-07-2008 - 16:57

Ageing people in construction jobs is leading to a "workforce time bomb", according to sector skills council ConstructionSkills.

The problem is most evident in manual jobs but trades such as architecture, civil and mechanical engineering could lose up to 20 per cent of their staff base over the next decade, according to New Civil Engineer.

Since the mid-1990s the number of people in construction jobs aged 60 or over has doubled, while the number of younger workers aged 24 or under has fallen by 27 per cent.

Mark Farrar, the new chief executive of ConstructionSkills, told the magazine employers need to act now to avoid a "serious skills shortfall".

He said: "As well as making more training places available, construction employers need to be more open-minded about who the perfect candidate might be.

"Last year we saw a 19% increase in female apprentice applications, but we were unable to translate this into the same increase in females placed."

ConstructionSkills recently revealed firms are failing to recruit apprentices for construction jobs.

The Financial Times reported 12,000 people applied for construction apprenticeships in England but only 2,400 places were provided.

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