A whopping 90,000 jobs could be axed across the construction industry in the first half of 2009, a trade body warned today.
The Federation of Master Builders polled its members and found that 52% planned to make redundancies in the first six months of the year.
The body’s State of Trade survey said that if this trend was repeated by all small and medium-sized construction firms, at least 90,000 jobs would be lost.
The survey also found that 60% of member firms reported a fall in workloads – which are down for the fourth consecutive quarter.
Richard Diment, director-general at the Federation of Master Builders, said: “These figures are truly devastating.
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“We know that when the recession last hit our industry, 500,000 people were made redundant. We cannot allow that to happen again. The construction sector is weakening at a shocking rate, which is why the government must act now to prevent any further suffering.”
Diment called for the government to increase consumer confidence with measures including a targeted cut in VAT to 5% on home maintenance and repairs.
