Up to 10,000 jobs in construction seen at risk

Employment in the construction industry may fall by 10,000 jobs this year if current trends continue, the Construction Industry Federation warned yesterday.

The federation called for an immediate cash injection into "a range and mix" of projects contained in the National Development Plan and warned of further job losses in the industry next year if the investment is not made.

The federation, which reported

that jobs in firms employing five or more people have been declining every month for the last year, also predicted a 4 per cent drop in volume output this year, a figure valued at about €800 million.

Private-sector general building construction is particularly weak this year, with volume output expected to fall by 23 per cent, according to the federation. However, public sector contracting and civil engineering were expected to show a growth in volume of 4 per cent in 2002.

Commenting on the general downturn in activity, the federation said that at beginning of the year it was anticipating an improvement in the investment climate in the second half of 2002.

However, the major concern now was a weakness in the approval of new projects to start construction in late 2002 and be implemented in 2003 and beyond.

In a reversal of the position of recent years, the federation said contractors were now actively looking for work and not people. While the preoccupation over the last few years had been about capacity constraints and price inflation, it had been very quickly replaced by evidence of spare capacity and price stability.

In a statement the federation said: " It is now up to Government to ensure that the pre-construction procedures for projects in the National Development Plan are accelerated and brought to construction without undue delay".

Calling for a cash injection for development plan projects, the federation also said it needed a range and mix of projects to be brought to the construction stage in the very near future. "If this does not happen, then unfortunately we will see many more jobs lost in the construction sector in 2003," it said.