Skip to main content

Another 50,000 Building Jobs To Go...

Another 50,000 building jobs set to go next year...

Another 52,000 construction and related jobs are expected to be lost next year, according to an unpublished report.

The cost of the job losses will add an additional €1 billion to exchequer spending in unemployment payments, benefits and training, according to a report prepared for the environment department.

The report, by DMK Economic Consultants, predicts that the numbers employed both directly and indirectly in construction would reach a floor of 126,000 by the end of next year. At one time, there were 380,000 people employed in construction and related jobs.

Up to the end of June this year, there were 127,000 people working in construction and a further 58,000 employed in construction-related work such as civil engineering, architecture, legal conveyancing and specific manufacturing for the sector.

This does not include an estimated 8,000 apprentices doing training.

The report estimates that as may as 7,700 apprentices and trainees were in a form of limbo having failed to complete their training as construction employers said they were not in a position to pay them.

The report’s projections are based on the assumption that the government’s capital allocation over the period 2010 - 2012 would be fully spent.

A lower spend would have even more serious repercussions, according to the report.

The report said that construction activity levels had ‘‘virtually come to a standstill’’
and said that output would decline by a further 10 per cent next year - with new house building likely to fall to 7,500 per year, a figure last seen in the mid-1990s.

Having peaked at 25 per cent of GNP, the industry is expected to fall to 9.2 per cent of GNP this year and just 7.9 per cent by 2012.

The report said these were ‘‘levels that are completely unsustainable for an economy focused on catering for the needs of the new indigenous and multinational enterprise base, that is expected to dominate the new smart economy in the next phase of Ireland’s economic development’’.

The value of construction output in current prices is projected to fall to around €10.5 billion by 2011. The last time the industry was valued at this level was in 1990.

The report said that, if the next series of budgets reduced capital provisions or increased taxation, both would damage the medium-term prospects for any viable construction recovery.

It noted that many of the 2010 public capital provisions were allocated to projects that had started in boom times and were now near completion.

‘‘Given the long lead-in time to the construction phase for most large public sector projects, unless new orders emerge of significant value, it may not be possible to spend the full public capital allocation next year," it read.

The report said that, despite the pressure on the government to reduce exchequer spending and capital budgets, there was a significant ‘‘infrastructure deficit’’ and a ‘‘need for investment in sensible public social and productive infrastructure projects.

‘‘Thus, unless innovative funding mechanisms emerge to fund projects in these areas, it is difficult to see where recovery in construction will come from in the short-to mediumterm," it stated.


Report by John Burke - Sunday Business Post.

Popular posts from this blog

Property Crash Homes For Sale...

Hundreds of repossessed homes in Ireland to be sold by auction... UK property consultancy Allsop to hold auction in April at Dublin's Shelbourne hotel: Flats in Ireland that could have fetched €150,000 in the Celtic Tiger years are to be put on the market for as little as €25,000 (£21,000) in the country's first ever mass auction of repossessed homes. And, in a sign of how wide the property crash is, the latest item to turn up in liquidation sales in Dublin is a job lot of 15 cranes, including a pair towering over Anglo Irish Bank's half-built headquarters in the city's docklands. "Tower cranes were among the most sought-after heavy plant and machinery 10 years ago," Ricky Wilson of Wilsons Auctions says. "You couldn't buy them quick enough. Now they are left idle for two or three years on sites." He has 15 cranes worth €500,000 going on sale on 26 March, with German, Dutch and Polish buyers expressing interest. But it is the auction ...

Young, Irish And Out Of Here...

As the government continues to pump billions into our much discredited banking system, many Irish people unable to find work here are facing into a future outside of this country. John Downes, News Investigations Correspondent, spoke to some of the new Irish diaspora about their recent experiences of emigration... By any stretch of the imagination, they were a startling set of figures, prompting echoes of a past which we thought we had left behind. According to ESRI data released last week, we can expect net emigration of 60,000 in the year to this April – and a further 40,000 by April 2011. That's almost 1,000 of our best and brightest leaving every week. Yet the ESRI's predictions are simply the latest – if most stark – indications of a return to mass emigration among Ireland's unemployed, as the downturn has continued to take its toll. In September, for example, the Central Statistics Office revealed that Ireland witnessed a return to net emigration for the first time si...

More Allsop Fire Sales...

Allsop plans five fire sales a year... THE UK auction house Allsop and its Irish affiliate Space plans to hold up to five distressed property auctions a year following the success of its first auction last Friday when 81 out of 82 lots were sold for a total of €15 million. The next auction is scheduled for July 7th, when 200 lots will be auctioned, including apartments, tenanted shops, farms and houses. According to Space director Stephen McCarthy, his company is being inundated with requests from receivers, banks and individuals who want to sell their property fast. Many of the properties in Friday’s auction were sold by Bank of Scotland Ireland and it’s believe there is plenty more of this stock to sell. These include apartments in the Castleforbes development in the Dublin docklands, as well as units in Dublin 8 and in Castleknock. However, the agency is also considering taking on more agricultural land. One lot, a 55 acre farm in Co Wickow sold particularly well, making €42...