Thousands of construction jobs in the pipeline

UP to 22,500 new construction jobs will be created in the North West in the period up to 2020, according to figures published today.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB)’s annual Construction Skills Network (CSN) report predicts employment in the sector is likely to rise by 1.6% a year, faster than the national rate of 1.1%.

The region is predicted to see an annual average growth rate of 2.6% in total construction output between 2016 and 2020, slightly above the UK rate of 2.5%.  
It is likely, the infrastructure sector is likely to be the best performing in the region with an annual average increase of 5.6%.

There are a number of current and new projects in the pipeline, such as work on the Mersey Gateway bridge, Anfield football stadium, the £290m, 10km long dual carriageway linking the A6 to Manchester Airport and the nuclear power station at Moorside in Cumbria.
 
To help deliver this pipeline of work, CITB has joined forces with the construction industry to create Go Construct, a web portal that helps people find out about the range of great construction career opportunities available.
 
Steve Housden, CITB sector strategy manager for the North West, said: “We can’t build the Britain we want without apprenticeships and the careers they lead to.

“That’s why we want these new statistics, showing solid, sustained growth, to inspire more people across the North West to start apprenticeships and more construction firms to take them on.
 
“We also want to attract workers who have left the industry to return, and upskill those in it, so we can deliver major projects and new housing faster and better.”