The latest ONS figures on the UK labour market indicate that construction redundancies fell by over two thirds, reaching the joint lowest rate since 2009
Construction redundancies fell by 67% between December 2022 and February 2023, according to the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics.
The UK employment rate across all industries was estimated at 75.8% in December 2022 to February 2023, 0.2 percentage points higher than the three months prior. According to the ONS, this increase in employment was driven by part-time employees and self-employed workers.
Vacancies remained stable, suggesting positions are being filled
Vacancies per one hundred employee jobs remained stable at 2.6 in construction, with the related industries of manufacturing; water supply, sewerage, waste and remediation activities and real estate services all seeing a similar level of stability compared to the December 2022- February 2023 period.
Dominick Sandford, managing director at IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect, commented: “The latest data shows there were 41,000 listings between January and March, which is the same as the previous period, and down 13% year-on-year (47,000). This suggests that companies have been able to fill their advertised positions in recent months, compared to 2022, when, anecdotally, many struggled to recruit.
“The importance of job security cannot be overstated, and people benefit both financially and psychologically if they don’t have to worry about being made unemployed. Hopefully the positive signs seen in this new data continue as the year goes on, and the construction industry can enjoy a fruitful summer.”
A low level of construction redundancies is a strong indicator of stability
“The most notable improvement concerns redundancies, which fell by two thirds (67%) over winter, from 9,000 down to 3,000 (December-February). The latest figure is the joint lowest since records began in 2009, and considerably lower than this time last year (5,000, 40% decrease), suggesting the sector has had a strong start to 2023.
“In contrast, across all industries in the UK, redundancies are up 20% year-on-year, and now stand at 90,000. This shows that despite the volatile economic landscape nationally, our sector has managed to maintain some stability.”
Cautious optimism for the season ahead
The number of potential construction redundancies filed also dropped by over 65%.
“The picture also looks good moving forwards. The number of filed potential redundancies has plummeted, dropping from 1,973 in February to 690 in March. This decrease of 65% hopefully means that fewer individuals will be at risk of losing their jobs as we head into the lighter months.”
