Construction industry breaks records as employment levels climb
The UK’s construction industry enjoyed bumper levels of employment last year, as the value of new work hit its highest level on record.
More than 1.3m construction workers were employed and new work was worth £109m in 2017, smashing pre-crisis levels as a result of private sector growth, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The new ONS data also found that the number of firms operating in the construction industry hit 314,590 in 2017, marking a 6.2 per cent rise when compared with the previous year.
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However, as the number of construction firms has risen, so too has the number of insolvencies, with a 3.4 per cent rise in construction companies going into administration last year.
According to the ONS, the record level of jobs were predominantly centred around London, the South East and the North East of England.
The rise in value of construction orders has been largely driven by several high-value contracts handed out by the government over the development of High Speed 2 (HS2).
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Last summer it emerged that roughly £6.6bn worth of contracts had already been awarded to build the new high-speed railway between London and Birmingham, with bankrupted firm Carillion among the firms who won an order.