{"id":61037,"date":"2019-07-31T08:59:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T07:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/?p=61037"},"modified":"2019-07-31T08:59:16","modified_gmt":"2019-07-31T07:59:16","slug":"construction-sector-downturn-fmb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/construction-sector-downturn-fmb\/61037\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction sector prepares for downturn, warns FMB"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Construction sector bosses are reorganising their workforce in preparation for a potential downturn, with higher levels of subcontracting and lower levels of direct employment, according to new research by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmb.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federation of Master Builders<\/a> (FMB)<\/h2>\n<p>Key results from the FMB\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fmb.org.uk\/media\/46124\/fmb_state_of_trade_q2_2019-final-version.pdf\">State of Trade Survey for Q2 2019<\/a>, which is the only quarterly assessment of the UK-wide SME construction sector, are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was a decrease in employment levels among small construction firms for the first time in more than five years with over one fifth (21%) of employers reporting a reduced workforce;<\/li>\n<li>After a difficult start to 2019, workloads for construction SMEs grew slightly compared with the previous quarter with more employers (27%) reporting higher workloads than in the first quarter of this year (22%);<\/li>\n<li>Bricklayers are the trade-in shortest supply with nearly two-thirds (60%) of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/smes-construction-sector\/52120\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">construction SMEs<\/a> struggling to hire these tradespeople and 54% struggling to hire carpenters and joiners;<\/li>\n<li>Looking ahead, expectations for the future weakened slightly. Just over one-third of construction SMEs (37%) are forecasting higher workloads over the coming three months, down from 41% in Q1 2019.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, said: \u201cYears of Brexit uncertainty have resulted in construction bosses starting to change how they employ their workforce. To ensure their firms are ready for any economic shock-waves later this year, employers are reducing their number of direct employees and relying more on subcontracting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe construction industry has always used a significant proportion of subbies but the fact that direct employment is decreasing points to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/hr-skills-news\/immigration-plans-construction\/61026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brexit nerves<\/a> among construction bosses. This is the reality on the ground of what happens when years of uncertainty are inflicted on the construction industry.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Furthermore, apprenticeship training has taken a hit as construction bosses are reluctant to take on young people when they can\u2019t be sure of future projects going ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Berry concluded: \u201cWorse still, the fear is that using more subbies can lead to a drop in the quality of our builds. Direct employees, who are well-known to their firm, are much more likely to follow the ethos of their company and build to the right standard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf construction bosses are trying to protect their businesses by employing more subbies, they might not always know how good these subbies are. Rebalancing the workforce may seem like a good idea at the time, but it could lead to reputation-damaging mistakes. If a downturn is on the horizon, reputation is everything and construction employers can scrutinise the quality of their workforce far more easily when they\u2019re on the books.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"mk-custom-module-container\">\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Construction sector reorganising their workforce for a potential downturn, with higher levels of subcontracting and lower levels of direct employment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[591,24813,568,676,882,720,621],"stakeholder_rel_tag":[],"contributor_rel_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-61037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-planning-construction-news","7":"tag-brexit","8":"tag-building-contracts","9":"tag-building-regulations","10":"tag-construction","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-federation-of-master-builders","13":"tag-sme"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Construction sector prepares for downturn, warns FMB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Construction sector reorganising their workforce for a potential downturn, with higher levels of subcontracting and lower levels of direct employment\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/construction-sector-downturn-fmb\/61037\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Construction sector prepares for downturn, warns FMB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Construction sector reorganising their workforce for a potential downturn, with higher levels of subcontracting and lower levels of direct employment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/construction-sector-downturn-fmb\/61037\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Planning, Building &amp; Construction Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBCToday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-31T07:59:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/\u00a9-Rui-Matos-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elisha Sketchley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PBC_Today\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/construction-sector-downturn-fmb\/61037\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/construction-sector-downturn-fmb\/61037\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elisha Sketchley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4ae66827b33682426f672d214cdd7580\"},\"headline\":\"Construction sector prepares for downturn, warns FMB\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-31T07:59:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/planning-construction-news\/construction-sector-downturn-fmb\/61037\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbctoday.co.uk\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Brexit\",\"Building Contracts\",\"Building Regulations\",\"Construction Processes\",\"Employment\",\"Federation of Master Builders\",\"SME\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Planning &amp; 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