The construction industry needs more young workers – and fast. To meet the challenge, it not only must promote itself more effectively, but also change its image.
The sector is key to supporting key UK aspirations for the coming years, like building new housing and moving to net zero by 2050. However, it faces longstanding recruitment challenges.
The government and private sector are proposing high levels of infrastructure investment, which are likely to result in output growing at an average rate of 4.4% between 2021 and 2025. To service such growth, the construction sector will need to hire an extra 43,000 workers per year. That’s on top of the usual figure needed to maintain the status quo, taking the total size of the workforce to 2.84 million, according to the Construction Skills Network 2021 report from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).