The ongoing challenging market conditions faced by the UK Construction industry continued in the latest report from the Office of National Statistics.
The report revealed that Construction output has continued its recent decline in the three-month on three-month series in January 2018, contracting for the ninth consecutive period, falling by 1%.
The fall was mainly driven by the drop in commercial work, which fell 4.1% in January. Despite the fall in Quarter 4 2017, total new orders increased by 4.3% in 2017, reaching the highest total since 2008, at £55,130 million.
Allan Callaghan, Managing Director of Cruden Building said “These figures reflect the challenging market conditions and an ongoing skills shortage, which many in the industry, Cruden included, have been signalling for some time now, despite our own hard-won growth figures.
In order for Scotland’s construction industry to reverse falling output figures, we need to increase the number of people choosing to work in the sector. The Federation of Master Builders recently reported that construction apprentices earn more per year than many of their university graduate counterparts, demonstrating the positive outcomes this career route offers young people in Scotland.
At Cruden we are proud to introduce many new workers to the diverse range of opportunities this sector offers through our annual apprenticeship programme. We are about to recruit an additional 15 new apprentices across a variety of trades and skills and they will become part of the 50 strong team of apprentices that we train every year.”
Image: Allan Callaghan, Managing Director of CBRL
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