Why are people leaving construction?

I

IanBECC14

New Member
I have been tasked with understanding the construction sector in my county, and noticed a large decline in numbers joining the construction industry. And whilst numbers of women joining the industry are on the rise (from 12.6% to 15.8%), there were 200,000 less men in construction in the 3rd quarter of 2023, than there was in the first 3 months prior to covid.

I've found some interesting stats from CITB, and have done additional research elsewhere, but I am very interested in getting feedback from those of you who work in the industry, or who may have left/considered leaving the industry.

Please feel free to be as honest as you can, and even give suggestions on how we may seek to improve numbers back in construction as a council.
 
OP,
You ask us: "to be as honest as we can" - fair enough, but why dont you reveal your true name, and the position you hold with whom, in what county? Who "tasked" you?
 
IanBECC14 said:
I have been tasked with understanding the construction sector in my county, and noticed a large decline in numbers joining the construction industry. And whilst numbers of women joining the industry are on the rise (from 12.6% to 15.8%), there were 200,000 less men in construction in the 3rd quarter of 2023, than there was in the first 3 months prior to covid.

I've found some interesting stats from CITB, and have done additional research elsewhere, but I am very interested in getting feedback from those of you who work in the industry, or who may have left/considered leaving the industry.

Please feel free to be as honest as you can, and even give suggestions on how we may seek to improve numbers back in construction as a council.
Click to expand...


Absolutely, where on Earth do I start?

Sack with extreme predjudice the skill-less, clueless, retail background or qualified in a trade to apprentice level middle class white collar deluded half-wits that have no construction experience whatsoever but are handed NVQ’s and certificates (as long as they pay for them) stating they are competent to run sites and industries whilst doing the actual opposite, and utterly ruining the building trade and garnering absolute fortunes for themselves and their buddies, whilst screwing and shafting the builders and subcontractors who actually build their products.

Eradicate the ‘Project Manager’ role as it’s a made up title, same goes for ‘Build Manager’, ‘Office Manager’, ‘Senior Site Manager’ and also ‘Assistant Site Manager’, bring back storemen, site agents(not managers) and most definitely bring back the Clerk of Works role.

Oh, and abolish the CSCS and all pathetic little ‘skills centre’ qualifications, reinstate City and Guilds and abolish the NHBC and introduce a proper inspection to all new homes, and limit the HSE of its bloated, pompous, virtue signalling nonsense that whether anyone cares to admit it or not, the costs associated with only ends up increasing the prices of the new builds making it unaffordable for millions.

Signed,

A Carpenter, seriously considering leaving the industry.
 
I saw a construction company near me fall last summer, a couple of the site guys retired and a couple went to work in a factory, out of all only a couple went back on site, it's a hard job and they pay is maybe not what it should be, which is odd at a time when self employed day rates seem to me to be on the up, and in some cases more than healthy.
What I see is the older experienced generation, the core of the trades, die out and not be replaced with the same, the next generation are perhaps just not replacing the old, and there are a lot of chancers out there that will charge you what the experienced should be getting.
 
Alan22 said:
I saw a construction company near me fall last summer, a couple of the site guys retired and a couple went to work in a factory, out of all only a couple went back on site, it's a hard job and they pay is maybe not what it should be, which is odd at a time when self employed day rates seem to me to be on the up, and in some cases more than healthy.
What I see is the older experienced generation, the core of the trades, die out and not be replaced with the same, the next generation are perhaps just not replacing the old, and there are a lot of chancers out there that will charge you what the experienced should be getting.
Click to expand...


Round my neck of the woods people have a stroke at paying a builder, roofer, carpenter yet think nothing of paying a landscaper £300+ a day or the window or gutter cleaner £50 cash for half an hours work. Not knocking them earning a living but it makes you wonder why you bother carrying on in a trade and why you went to college for four years. I’m only scratching the surface with my feelings on the matter, there’s a lot of rot that has set in.
 
Jord86 said:
Absolutely, where on Earth do I start?

Sack with extreme predjudice the skill-less, clueless, retail background or qualified in a trade to apprentice level middle class white collar deluded half-wits that have no construction experience whatsoever but are handed NVQ’s and certificates (as long as they pay for them) stating they are competent to run sites and industries whilst doing the actual opposite, and utterly ruining the building trade and garnering absolute fortunes for themselves and their buddies, whilst screwing and shafting the builders and subcontractors who actually build their products.

Eradicate the ‘Project Manager’ role as it’s a made up title, same goes for ‘Build Manager’, ‘Office Manager’, ‘Senior Site Manager’ and also ‘Assistant Site Manager’, bring back storemen, site agents(not managers) and most definitely bring back the Clerk of Works role.

Oh, and abolish the CSCS and all pathetic little ‘skills centre’ qualifications, reinstate City and Guilds and abolish the NHBC and introduce a proper inspection to all new homes, and limit the HSE of its bloated, pompous, virtue signalling nonsense that whether anyone cares to admit it or not, the costs associated with only ends up increasing the prices of the new builds making it unaffordable for millions.

Signed,

A Carpenter, seriously considering leaving the industry.
Click to expand...
What you fancy next Jord??
 
I don’t work in construction per se, but have thought several times about giving up being a gas engineer, mainly because I wasn’t taught the best, people who I work for often don’t care about certain regulations and there’s probably other reasons too. The truth is, I see myself as unemployable elsewhere due to lack of knowledge, training and experience, and I’m on an ok wage, which doing something else would be a pay drop.
 
LearnMore said:
I don’t work in construction per se, but have thought several times about giving up being a gas engineer, mainly because I wasn’t taught the best, people who I work for often don’t care about certain regulations and there’s probably other reasons too. The truth is, I see myself as unemployable elsewhere due to lack of knowledge, training and experience, and I’m on an ok wage, which doing something else would be a pay drop.
Click to expand...

Gas engineers are possibly the top of the earning tree and most in demand, get into ASHP's and retire to Florida.
 
Jord86 said:
Salary, pension, company van, holiday, sick pay? You working on housing association or something?
Click to expand...
Correct, social housing. I don’t pay into their pension as I couldn’t afford it at the time, but they’re currently attacking the pension anyway, Van, holidays and sick pay yes.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
LearnMore said:
Correct, social housing. I don’t pay into their pension as I couldn’t afford it at the time, but they’re currently attacking the pension anyway, can holidays and sick pay yes.
Click to expand...


Phone round other companies immediately and jump ship when you have something far better to go to, you will never get anything other than the dregs working for firms who’s main income is working on voids, it also attracts the shat lazy trades who don’t give a monkeys or never had experience on sites building houses from start to finish and just throw kitchens, bathrooms etc in as the boss is screaming at them to hurry up and half don’t have the tools anyway.

A sweeping generalisation, but an accurate one.
 
Jord86 said:
Phone round other companies immediately and jump ship when you have something far better to go to, you will never get anything other than the dregs working for firms who’s main income is working on voids, it also attracts the shat lazy trades who don’t give a monkeys or never had experience on sites building houses from start to finish and just throw kitchens, bathrooms etc in as the boss is screaming at them to hurry up and half don’t have the tools anyway.

A sweeping generalisation, but an accurate one.
Click to expand...
I would, but not that simple at the moment, as we went to move house, so need it fir mortgage. I have looked around, but there’s nothing that pays similar. More seems to be if you have commercial gas. That, or I’m looking in the wrong places.
 
LearnMore said:
I would, but not that simple at the moment, as we went to move house, so need it fir mortgage. I have looked around, but there’s nothing that pays similar. More seems to be if you have commercial gas. That, or I’m looking in the wrong places.
Click to expand...


I think you’re looking in the wrong places, 35K is roughly £700 a week, with respect there are job advertisements out there for self employed labourers, cleaners and delivery drivers that are upwards of £150 a day, £18.75 an hour, I’m sure there’s more to it and they don’t get that every day I imagine but the fact it’s even advertised makes you want to dirty protest the nearest DPD van.
 
There was something on tv last week that sparked a conversation, I'll spare you the in's and out's but according to the thing on the tv a cleaner gets more per hour than a first year(trained) nurse and they don't need to work night shifts.

I'd hate to think nurses were leaving to clean houses, nothing wrong with cleaning houses but with respect to that no one is going to die if they have a bad day.
 
Alan22 said:
There was something on tv last week that sparked a conversation, I'll spare you the in's and out's but according to the thing on the tv a cleaner gets more per hour than a first year(trained) nurse and they don't need to work night shifts.
Click to expand...

I can answer this! Nurses are paid on NHS Agenda for Change national salaries, and a newly qualified Staff Nurse would be appointed on Band 5, i.e. £28,407 for a standard working week, base salary for a standard working week. There are also reasonable unsocial working hours additional payments. Progression after 4 years experience is to £34,581. Many NHS trusts are so short staffed that they will also employ routinely 'temporary' staff via an agency (e.g. NHSP) paid hourly where rates will be slightly higher. More senior nurses e.g. a charge nurse would move to Band 6 which is £35-£43k base salary. Of course there is also an NHS pension and so forth. It's not for me to say whether or not that's a reasonable remuneration package given the nature of the work but hard to imagine a cleaner is better off. Ican't say the same for unqualified roles (e.g. support workers) however, I suspect the difference there is much more magrinal.

More generally, this thread has been really illuminative for me. I'm just a DIY bod who is interested in learning about how things work and enjoys doing 'practical' work having bitten off more than he can chew in living in an old house. I've learnt so much from others' expertise online. But the more I do the more I realise I don't know and how much society takes the expertise of trades for granted. Houses and buildings are really complicated 'systems' with lots of interacting parts and it's in society's interest to want us to 'do them right and well'. School and education is far too disconnected from 'what society needs' and frankly we do need people who have practical skills and trades and we need these people to be 'good' - you don't need to look far in this forum to see the results of shoddy workmanship and a lack of interest and imagination in the process of regulation of housebuilding. It's a shame that we're taught from an early age to somehow see practical professions and trades as 'lower'. Unfortunately there are plenty of cowboys out there who manage to take advantage of that image, but it's also clear from this forum that there are also plenty of people who are very skilled and knowledgable. Sorry, a bit of a long post.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top