Jobs 'going begging'

For the first time in five years, young civil engineers, freshly graduated this summer, are in demand as jobs go begging. One recruitment agency reports that staff in its Southampton, Ilford, Harrow and Birmingham offices have been ringing round universities all this week looking for newcomers to construction.

And within the industry, demand for site managers with experience on the speculative housing side has exploded so that anyone prepared to move has got 'the pick of the jobs'.

The moves are just two of many signals that construction's labour market is strengthening rapidly. Until a few months ago, the position was still sluggish, with wage rates pinned back by employer awareness of 500,000 ex-employees who lost their jobs during the recession.

But just as demand picks up comes the realisation that very few of those 500,000 wish to return to the industry. Hurt by a sequence of boom-bust cycles, most have found employment elsewhere.

Signals of this drift away from contracting have been there for some while. Eighteen months ago, for instance, 80% of those registering with Montrose Technical Recruitment, a leading recruitment agency for jobs in UK construction, were unemployed. Today that figure has dropped to 10%.

Robert Smith, managing director at Montrose, reckons the statistic reflects a pent-up desire for a move by those in work. Staff who kept their heads down during the recession, and those who switched to less well paid posts in order to keep in work, are judging this the right time to look for a move.

Smith said: 'The biggest shortage is in housing site managers. We can place ones with the right experience instantly.

'Next, in shortage terms, comes site engineers with two years' experience. Typically aged 25-27, many are on contract and paid at an hourly rate. Employers want them to switch to permanent posts but they are saying ' no thanks'. They see this as the right time to take a risk and why not? Being on contract at œ10/hour yields them œ20,000 a year. If they manage to stay in full-time work, yet on a salary they'd only get œ12-15,000. Employers are having to offer œ15,000 for new posts, even though existing staff in similar positions get only œ12,000. I know one major contractor who still doesn't offer any salary increases to his staff until they resign.

'Contractors have a problem here - they tendered for work 12 months ago at no margin, or even slight loss, and material prices have already moved up. Any further wage increases will push them into further loss.'

The change in fortunes for young graduates surprised Smith. 'It's a dramatic change,' he said. 'For four years these people have had no hope, but now there are jobs going begging that we can't fill.'

Amongst the trades, the shortage of bricklayers is causing Montrose most headaches. With an estimated 2,000 skilled bricklayers now working in Germany for œ1,000 a week, the recent œ20-a-day increase in London rates, to œ70-œ75 a day, is unlikely to have capped the upward pressure.

Smith said: 'The NVQ in bricklaying has left the industry in a mess. Employers don't want these people. All we can get them is a job either as a labourer or a hod carrier.

'Somebody has to start proper training. These people are crying out for bricklaying skills but they can't acquire them. NVQ is certainly not working on the bricklaying front.'