Employers in the UK construction industry are having increasing difficulty recruiting new workers thanks to a lack of skilled tradesmen in the country.
This is the conclusion of the latest skills shortage survey from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), which found that 77 per cent of construction firms had problems recruiting last year.
Some 68 per cent of respondents to the survey said they felt that their current workforce lacked the skills necessary to handle the growing demand for construction work, which is expected to increase further over 2007.
And the problems were found to be worse at a managerial and craft/trade levels, with migrant workers, most of whom work as labourers, being unable to fill such prominent positions.
Michael Brown, deputy chief executive of the CIOB, said: "A combination of small numbers leaving university and a buoyant global construction industry have both been factors in the skills shortages we now see."
He said that more needs to be done to make the construction industry attractive to young people leaving school and college, and that new recruits need to be given more responsibility to help them progress once involved in the industry.
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