UK employs 75,000 migrants in the construction industry

Around 75,000 migrant workers were employed in the UK construction industry in the three months to June 2006 – that’s the latest snapshot offered by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The publication of the figure coincides with the recent release of a damning research document commissioned by the Health & Safety Executive, looking at the safety of migrant workers in England and Wales (see news analysis pages 6 and 7).

The figure, provided by the ONS on behalf of the Labour Force Survey, comprises three broad subdivisions: contract traders; building workers; and those in elementary construction occupations.

Overall, there were 42,000 contract traders, including steel erectors, bricklayers, masons, roofers, plumbers, heating engineers, glaziers, carpenters and joiners.

The survey estimated there were around 17,000 elementary construction workers in unskilled labourer occupations.

[Contract Journal, 18 October 2006, p 2]