International Journal of Manpower

Skill Shortages in the Construction Sector

Geoffrey Briscoe

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To cite this document:
Geoffrey Briscoe, (1990),"Skill Shortages in the Construction Sector", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 11 Iss 2 pp. 23
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Mohamed S. Abdel-Wahab, Andrew R.J. Dainty, Stephen G. Ison, Patrick Bowen, Guy Hazlehurst, (2008),"Trends of skills
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SKILL SHORTAGES IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

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he nature of skill shortages in the UK

construction sector is examined.

Skill
Shortages
in the
Construction
Sector
Geoffrey Briscoe

industry. A Commons Select Committee took evidence

on skill shortages in the construction sector. The CITB's
Annual Report for 1986-87 acknowledged the problem of
skill shortages especially in London and the South-East
and in the particular trades of carpentry, bricklaying,
plastering and painting and decorating. It concluded that
whilst there was unlikely to be a serious shortage of labour
nationally, some contractors would face problems in
meeting their specific requirements in local labour
markets[3]. During 1987 and continuing into 1988, demand
for construction output has grown strongly, especially in
the South-Eastern region, and these problems of skill
shortage have been intensified.
Survey Reports
Whilst a good deal of the evidence of construction skill
shortage remains anecdotal, a number of surveys provide
more tangible proof. The Building Employers'
Confederation (BEC) conducts a quarterly survey amongst
its 600 member firms and the results are weighted to
reflect the size of firm. Some of the results reported in
the Spring 1988 survey are reproduced in Table I. Part
A of this table shows how skill shortages have significantly
increased over the last two years. Of the selected skills
examined, shortages of bricklayers and carpenters appear
to be more severe than those for plasterers. Part B of
Table I provides a breakdown by region. It is apparent
Table I. BEC Survey Evidence of Skill Shortages
Bricklayers

The Evidence
In the decade after 1973 overall construction output
declined by a quarter and this produced associated
reductions in the size of the industry's workforce and,
in particular, in the number of construction trainees.
During the late 1970s and the early 1980s the concern was
with large-scale unemployment amongst construction
operatives and there were very few mentions of skill
shortages. Indeed, the Building Economic Development
Committee's (EDC) Skilled Manpower Steering Group,
reporting in 1984, found that generalised shortages of
operative skills were unlikely to be a problem in the near
future [1]. Other commentators on construction manpower
shared this view. By late 1986, although output in the
industry had only grown relatively slowly in the intervening
years, widespread concern was being expressed over
construction skill shortages.
Early in 1987 the building press ran a number of articles
on skill shortages; the magazine Building wrote of the
missing thousands of tradesmen[2]. The Minister for
Housing advised the Construction Industry Training Board
(CITB) urgently to introduce extra trainees into the

Carpenters

Plasterers

IA: Percentage of Firms

Nationally Reporting Difficulty
in Recruiting Specific Skills
(first quarter of each year)
Date:
1984
40
48
1986
80
1988

38
35
77

24
25
64

IB: Percentage of Firms with

Skill Shortages, by Region
(first quarter, 1988)
Region:
London
97
Southern
86
South-West
85
Eastern
83
Scotland
43
Northern
47
Yorkshire
70
Midland
85

77
84
88
84
56
51
66
85

75
71
72
66
1
47
59
80

Source: Building Employers' Confederation State of the Trade Enquiry

(Spring 1988)

24 SKILL SHORTAGES IN THE 1990s

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that skill shortages are more pronounced in London and

the Southern regions than in Scotland and the North.
However, contractors in both the Midlands and Yorkshire
were also experiencing significant shortages at the start
of 1988. Of course, the severity of these reported
shortages is open to question, but the BEC survey
confirms that some 11 per cent of all firms considered
their manpower problems to be contributing to serious
contract delays. This percentage was as high as 52 per
cent in the London region, but it was appreciably less
elsewhere.
A second important source of evidence is afforded by the
September 1987 survey of the Federation of Master
Builders (FMB). This employers' federation represents
mainly smaller contracting firms, but the results are
generally consistent with those found for the larger
member firms of the BEC. Table IIA confirms the regional
disparities in skill shortages, whilst Table IIB indicates
how the shortage problem is most pronounced amongst
bricklayers, carpenters and plasterers.
The evidence provided in these two surveys is also
mirrored by other research organisations in the
construction sector, such as the trade unions and the

Table II. FMB Survey Results on Construction Skill

Shortages (September 1987)

IIA: Percentage of Firms with Skill Shortages, by Region

Region
London
Southern
Eastern
South-West
Midland
Northern
Yorkshire
North-West
English Total

Percentage of All Firms

79
64
63
57
53
47
36
32
55

IIB: Percentage of Skills Involved, Based on the Firms

Reporting a Shortage
Trade
Carpenters
Bricklayers
Plasterers
General Operatives
Painters
Mechanical Engineers
Roofers

Percentage of Cases
75
66
22
20
19
12
12

Source: Federation of Master Builders Manpower and Training Survey

(December 1987)

London Research Centre. The Association of

Metropolitan Authorities revealed in 1987 how 72 per
cent of its Direct Labour Organisations (DLOs) had
difficulty recruiting skilled labour. Moreover, it would
appear that the problem is not simply confined to
operative skills, but it also extends to professional and
supervisory staff. A recent report in Building magazine
highlighted a shortfall of graduates in the construction
sector[4] and certainly the salary offers currently being
made to this year's graduates underlines this shortage.
In the first half of 1988 the construction press has been
overladen with job advertisements for every kind of skill,
whilst the same magazines have continued to report on
crisis meetings over skill shortages, especially in the
London and South-Eastern area markets.
Patterns of Demand for Skills
The demand for construction skills is governed by both
the geographical location of the activity and by the exact
nature of the product which is demanded. Unlike most
manufactured products, construction goods and services
are produced at the point of demand and there is little
opportunity for centralised production and subsequent
distribution. In the 1980s, demand has tended to
concentrate in the Southern regions of the country and
this is a major contributory factor to skill shortages in
labour markets in and around London.
Construction activity embraces a wide diversity of
different products and services, and demand for these
has been changing quite significantly in recent years.
Often there are very different labour skill implications
between the different types of work. So, as the Building
EDC makes clear, whilst 1,000 contract value (measured
in 1970 prices) of new housebuilding work uses some nine
site-person days of a bricklayer's employment, the same
contract value in a commercial building uses only 3.3
bricklayer site-person days and on a civil engineering
contract, such as roadbuilding, this falls to 0.2 days.
Regional Aspects
Data provided in Table III show how the overall
construction workload has shifted in favour of London and
the Southern regions of Great Britain during the 1980s.
In 1981, London, the South-East and the South-West
between them shared some 44 per cent of the total
industry output; by 1986 this figure had moved up to 48
per cent. Measured in terms of new work only, the gains
were even greater, so that by 1986 these Southern areas
were responsible for half of all new output in Great
Britain. When new commercial work is looked at in
isolation, it can be seen how, by 1986, these same regions
generated 63 per cent of the national total. This
concentration of demand in one part of the country puts
pressure on the existing skilled labour force and, in the
absence of matching supply responses, contributes to skill
shortages.

SKILL SHORTAGES IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR 25

Table III. Construction Sector Constractors' Output Statistics

MA: Regional Percentage Shares

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Region
London
(Rest of) South-East
South-West
East Midlands
East Anglia
West Midlands
North-West
North
Yorkshire
Wales
Scotland
Great Britain

All
work

1981
New
work

Commercial
work

All
work

1986
New
work

Commercial
work

16.0
20.9
7.4
6.5
4.3
7.5
.9.7
5.0
8.2
4.9
9.6

15.9
20.8
7.2
6.5
4.4
6.9
9.4
5.5
7.8
5.5
10.1

35.6
19.5
7.3
3.6
2.8
5.4
6.7
3.1
5.5
3.1
7.4

15.8
23.7
8.4
6.1
4.3
8.3
9.1
4.7
7.3
3.4
8.9

16.8
25.0
8.0
5.8
4.4
7.8
8.7
5.2
6.3
3.2
8.8

33.1
24.1
6.0
4.7
2.6
6.2
6.3
5.4
4.1
2.1
5.4

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

IIIB: Percentage Type of Work Done

1976

1981

1986

New Public Housing

New Private Housing
New Public Non-housing
New Industrial
New Commercial
Housing R&M
Non-housing R&M

14.6
17.3
22.6
11.9
11.8
11.6
10.2

6.0
13.4
17.9
13.3
14.8
19.0
15.6

3.1
15.9
15.7
11.5
18.6
20.0
15.2

Total

100%

100%

100%

Type of Work

Source: Housing and Construction Statistics (HMSO, 1987)

During the 1980s, many major construction schemes have

been initiated in the South-Eastern region. Prominent
amongst these projects have been London Docklands and
Canary Wharf, the Broadgate development, airport
terminals at Heathrow, as well as Gatwick and Stanstead,
commercial developments in the City of London in the
wake of "Big Bang", the M25 motorway and the Dartford
Crossing. In the late 1980s, construction began on the
Channel Tunnel and its associated infrastructure, major
new developments are in prospect at Kings Cross-St
Pancras and electricity power stations are due for
significant upgrading in the region. At the same time, the
region remains highly favoured for house building and
developers continue to formulate plans for new housing
initiatives, as well as for major refurbishments of the
existing stock.
Frain[5], writing on the labour implications of the Channel
Tunnel, has shown how the project already employs some
2,000 construction workers and this is expected to
increase to a peak of 5,000 in the early 1990s. Skill

shortages appear inevitable, as Kent has never been

noted as an area of construction specialism. There is a
high likelihood that skilled labour will be displaced from
existing local employers and there will be an impact on
other regional labour markets as Trans-Marche Link
(TML), the tunnelling contractors, attempt to recruit
skills from elsewhere. Initially, the tunnel will require civil
engineering skills, such as tunnellers and earthmovers,
but later the demand for bricklayers, plumbers and
plasterers will increase as the tunnelling phase is
completed. TML are already experiencing difficulties
recruiting suitably qualified professional engineers.
Outside the South-Eastern region there is growing
evidence of increasing construction activity in other
regions which, in the first half of the 1980s, have
experienced comparatively low demand. The West
Midlands is enjoying much higher construction output
levels in 1988, as private sector initiatives are targeted
on Birmingham the International Convention Centre,
the Bull Ring redevelopment, and the Heartlands urban

Downloaded by Universiti Teknologi MARA At 01:56 24 November 2015 (PT)

26 SKILL SHORTAGES IN THE 1990s

development proposals. The completion of the M40

motorway is increasing public sector demand in this region
too. The most recent skill shortage survey in Table I
suggests that the Midlands region as a whole is already
short of key skilled operatives. In Sheffield, a 1 billion
renewal programme has just begun and a recent report
on that city has highlighted the difficulties which
contractors and the local authorities are likely to
experience in recruiting suitable labour skills[6]. Other
areas are also experiencing significantly higher
construction demand. Scotland, in particular, is reported
in the building press as enjoying a belated upsurge in
commercial building demand. Previously, skilled operatives
have moved from regions such as Scotland and Yorkshire
and thereby helped to relieve the skills shortage in the
South-East, but perhaps this pattern will change with
higher demand levels in the Northern regions.
The Changing Work Mix

The bottom half of Table III indicates how the balance in

the type of construction work done has shifted significantly
over the most recent decade. By 1986, there was a marked
reduction in all types of public sector work compared to
the position in 1976. New housing in total was much less
important, whilst repair and maintenance activity,
especially in housing, had increased very markedly. The
other notable change was in the growth of new commercial
building which by 1986 had become the single most
important new work category. These observed trends are
likely to continue into the future, according to the scenario
developed by the Building and Civil Engineering EDCs
for the industry in the 1990s [7]. Another, more recently
published, view of construction demand through to the
end of the century, draws on econometric forecasts in
suggesting significant growth in overall output[8]. Within
the total demand there may well be some resurgence in
public sector work as the need to upgrade the ageing
infrastructure becomes ever more urgent and stronger
growth in the demand for new private sector housing is
also very likely.

available in the existing construction workforce. Gann[9]

has provided a number of examples. These include fasttrack construction techniques used on many commercial
buildings and which require operatives skilled in handling
and installing a large number of prefabricated components.
They also extend to more sophisticated services in
industrial and commercial buildings which necessitate
electricians and engineers with greater technical knowledge
of microelectronic control systems. Where repair and
maintenance work has increased to fill the gap left by
shrinking new building markets, demands have arisen for
operatives with multiple skills, rather than a specialist single
skill qualification. Many maintenance workers do not have
the necessary skills to carry out the tasks required of them.
Skill shortages arise from changes in the nature of the
construction product and its associated services.
The Supply of Construction Skills
There are many variables which govern the supply of
construction skills available to a firm in a given location
at any particular point in time. Undoubtedly, some of the
shortages reported in the first section of this article are,
in reality, the consequences of some firms offering too
low a level of wages. The Building EDC[7] has detailed
the practice of "pay and poach" in labour markets, where
skills prove difficult to obtain, and such a practice serves
to accelerate labour turnover and create the appearance
of severe shortages. In other instances, skilled operatives
may temporarily leave the construction sector tofindwork
in other industries; some of these skilled craftsmen may
be tempted back by higher levels of remuneration. Whilst
firms in the South-Eastern labour markets may experience
difficulty in recruiting skilled labour, craftsmen in other
areas of the country may remain unemployed. There exist
real barriers to labour mobility and, for many, the cost
of housing is a major limitation in moving to the SouthEast. Some evidence on these points is provided by
Hogarth and Daniel[10].
CITB Training levels

This changing pattern of demand carries with it strong implications for the labour skill requirements. The observed shift
away from new housing has seemingly reduced the demand
for those traditional skills, such as bricklaying, and painting
and decorating, which are strongly associated with this type
of work. However, where training levels have fallen and
demand has then increased, as has happened in the SouthEastern region in recent years, skill shortfalls have inevitably
occurred. Equally, where the lower level of public sector
non-housing work has reduced demand for skills, such as
plant operators and steel-fixers, it is hardly surprising that
when private sector initiatives, such as London Docklands
and the Channel Tunnel, reactivate demand for the same
skills, shortages are revealed. Many of the older operatives
have left the industry and few younger workers have been
trained in these skills.
In other respects, changing demand has introduced
requirements for new labour skills which are not readily

Overall, the key to replenishing and expanding the

industry's stock of labour skills is through the recruitment
of new entrants and the quality of training which they
receive. Some indication of the recent trends in the
numbers of new entrants is provided in Table IV. The
series detailing all CITB trainees, whilst far from
comprehensive, provides a representative measure of the
declining number of trainees entering construction over
the last decade. Between 1977 and 1986, CITB operative
trainees declined by 24 per cent and the ratio of trainees
to all construction workers also fell significantly, despite
a small recovery after 1983. These declines were well
spread over almost all skilled trades but there were
significant falls in the number of bricklayers, carpenters
and painters trades highlighted in Table I.
Within the CITB totals, there have been some important
shifts between the various categories of trainee. In
particular, the numbers of apprentices have fallen

SKILL SHORTAGES IN THE CONSTRUCTION SECTOR 27

Table IV. Selected Traning Statistics for the

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Constuction Sector

Year

All CITB
Trainees
(000)

1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986

62.8
65.1
65.3
69.0
60.7
55.0
49.8
48.4
48.5
47.8

NJCBI New Percentage of

Apprentice Trainees to All
Registrations Construction
Workers
(000)
10.2
10.8
12.4
14.0
11.4
9.3
8.9
7.3
8.7
7.5

8.0
7.0
6.8
6.3
5.3
6.2
6.1
6.3
6.4
6.5

Sources: Columns (1) and (3) are based on CITB returns. Column (2) is
taken from Incomes Data Services, Study 396 (1987).

markedly, especially since 1983 when the Youth Training

Scheme (YTS) was first established in the industry. The
National Joint Council for the Building Industry (NJCBI)
apprenticeship is only one of a number of such schemes
applicable to construction, but the statistics shown in
Table IV are representative of the declining trend in
apprentice numbers. Both the Building and Allied Trades
Joint Industrial Council (BATJIC) apprentice registrations
and those for local authority apprentices show similar
declining trends. The Federation of Master Builders
analysis of the 1987 BATJIC apprentice applications
shows that training activity is not scaled to employer
numbers or output[ll]. The London area is the region
with the highest construction workload, yet it had the
lowest apprentice registration on this particular scheme.
Since 1983, the Youth Training Scheme managed by the
CITB has recruited some 18,000 trainees annually,
although the data for 1986 indicates that only 80 per cent
of these starters actually completed the one-year course
and, of those completing, some 90 per cent found
employment within the industry. This YTS scheme has
now been extended to two years and many employers
undoubtedly operate it as a low cost alternative to
apprenticeship. Other trainees enter the industry through
training schemes not controlled by the CITB, such as the
local authority schemes and those which are collegebased. There are no grounds for supposing that these
numbers have been increasing, whilst CITB-controlled
training numbers have been falling.
Other Industry Training

Two other sources of trainee supply are worthy of

mention. The government (Training Agency) operates
a range of schemes, apart from YTS, for training hitherto

unemployed people; schemes such as the Community

Programme have produced a supply of construction skills
to various quality levels. Many of these schemes aim at
retraining adults over a comparatively short period and
hence the quality of this training falls a long way short
of the 3-year indentured apprenticeship. Within the
construction sector, a significant amount of informal onthe-job training has always taken place, although there
are no exact figures on the extent and quality of such
training. When the numbers from these various sources
are added to the CITB totals shown in Table IV the supply
of trainees is much enhanced; Andrew[12] has recently
put the overall figure for 1987-88 as high as 70,000.
However, there remains considerable variation in the
quality of training being given and there is very little
overall control in matching specific skills training to the
changing needs of the industry. These points are well
argued by both Gann[9] and Stewart[6].
In September 1988 the Government launched its
Employment Training (ET) scheme to replace all its
existing adult training programmes. ET is targeted on
unemployed adults and the CITB is initially planning to
harness the new initiative to a standard scheme for training
up to 6,000 adults a year[13]. ET is to be specially tailored
to local labour market needs and the programme is to be
delivered through a network of managing agents who will
organise the off-the-job training and arrange practical work
experience with construction firms. It is clear that ET
depends for its success on firms being willing to provide
places for the prospective trainees. Whilst the direct wage
costs to the firms will be met by government funding it
remains to be seen whether enough contractors will be
prepared to provide training to a good standard.
Some Explanations of Low Training

The main reason for the recent decline in training at a time

when output is growing, is the growth of self-employment
and labour-only subcontracting and the corresponding
demise of direct employment of labour. Between 1980 and
1987 the self-employed share of the construction
workforce grew from 21.6 to an estimated 33.5 per cent.
In the high activity regions of the South-East, the majority
of construction operatives are now self-employed and use
of labour-only subcontracting is commonplace. The
reluctance of self-employed operatives and small labouronly firms to carry out any sort of training is well-known;
see, for example, Langford[14]. The CITB, the
construction employers' federations, the trade unions
(especially the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and
Technicians (UCATT)) and the construction press have
all drawn attention to the problems posed for training by
the move away from practices of direct employment.
Firms in areas of existing skill shortages are often
reluctant to train their own workers since pay-and-poach
labour market practices will usually mean that the trained
operative will be attracted away, before the training firm
can fully benefit from its training investment. This is a
particular problem for the local authority sector with its

28 SKILL SHORTAGES IN THE 1990s

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relatively lower rates of pay. In regions of labour shortage,

the DLOsfindit especially difficult to obtain and hold skilled
craftsmen despite their comparatively higher commitment
to training. The CITB has attempted to alleviate this problem
by drawing labour-only subcontractors into its training fold.
But the problem of too low a level of training to meet the
short-term demand for skills remains with the industry.
Training in the construction sector is not perceived as a
sufficiently profitable activity for many firms. Despite the
lower costs of training, established by YTS subsidies, a large
number of firms have not responded to this price incentive.
Most construction firms plan on a very short-term basis
and they prefer to recruit skilled manpower for specific
contracts, rather than on a continuous basis. The commitment to training is frequently considered an unacceptable
cost overhead in the face of uncertain future contracts; there
is little information available on the exact costs of training
in construction. Almost certainly in the absence of YTS,
levels of training today would be much lower than they are.
Future Prospects
Demand for construction products and services is likely to
remain strong in the period through to the year 2000 and
much of this demand will continue to concentrate on the
South-Eastern region; fuller details can be found in Building
Britain 2001[8]. If skill shortages are to be avoided in the
medium and longer term, more trainees will need to be
recruited to the industry and their skill qualifications will
need to be more closely matched to the output demand.
Moreover, it is important that training numbers are adjusted
to the regional balance of work so that more trainees are
available to the South-Eastern labour market where skill
demand is highest. Present practices of London contractors
recruiting craftsmen from the Northern regions and paying
travel and lodging expenses provides only a short-term
solution and this practice may well run into difficulties as
workloads in other regions increase.
The CITB, the Training Agency and associated agencies
are well aware of the present shortage problems and various
initiatives have been forthcoming over the last two years
to try to ease the problem but, in the longer term,
recruitment difficulties may well lie ahead as the national
workforce pool will shrink appreciably in the 1990s. The
construction sector has rarely in the past been able to attract
school-leavers with better qualifications and in the future
it is likely to have to struggle to obtain its share of those
young people with lower qualifications; see the views of
industry practitioners on this aspect[4]. The industry may
need to improve its image if it is to be successful in recruiting
the numbers of trainees it needs in the near future and new
methods of recruitment and training might be required. In
this context the quality of training on offer is likely to prove
relevant and perhaps there are lessons to be learnt from
the comparative studies of vocational training in Britain with
training in France and West Germany, as produced by Prais

and his associates at the National Institute for Economic

Research[15]. Compared with these European countries, the
UK quality of craft training for the building trades is claimed
to be significantly inferior.
Unless the problem of skill shortages can be eradicated in
the longer term, the construction sector will face growing
labour cost difficulties which will restrict growth. Normal
skill mobility responses are unlikely to be sufficient to solve
shortages, given that demand is expected to grow
significantly in regions outside the South-East. Already
higher wage rates have become established in the overheated London market[16] and such costs must find their
way through into higher prices for buildings. Construction
clients will seek alternative locations wherever feasible, but
some buildings will never be commissioned and, in an
increasingly international environment the more so after
1992 others will be built abroad to the disadvantage of
the UK and its construction sector.
References

1. Building EDC, Building Skills for Tomorrow's Jobs, Nationa

Economic Development Office, 1984.
2. Law, P., Guest, P. and Steadman, R., "Death of the
Craftsman", Building,30 January 1987, pp. 26-9.
3. Construction Industry Training Board, CITB Annual Report
1986-87, 1987, p. 7.
4. Guest, P. and Pepinster, C., "Labour Pains", Building, 22
January 1988, pp. 30-2.
5. Frain, M., "The Construction Industry", Skills Bulletin No.
5, The Training Commission, Summer 1988.
6. Stewart, A., Planning Homes and Jobs: The Sheffield
Report, University of Warwick, 1988.
7. Building and Civil Engineering EDCs, Construction to 1990,
National Economic Development Office, 1984.
8. Centre for Strategic Studies in Construction, Building
Britain 2001, University of Reading, 1988.
9. Gann, D., "Construction Employment, Skills and Training:
Recent Trends and Future Prospects", (mimeographed),
Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex,
February 1988.
10. Hogarth, T. and Daniel, WW., "The Long-distance
Commuters", New Society, 29 May 1987, pp. 11-13.
11. Federation of Master Builders, Manpower and Training
Survey, FMB, December 1987.
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Geoffrey Briscoe is attached to the Department of Civil Engineering and Building, Coventry Polytechnic, UK.

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