A shortage of key skilled trades including bricklayers could last for up to two years unless the government does more to guard against labour constraints.
That’s the warning from the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) director-general Tony Danker, who set out priorities for business and government following weeks of disruption to business operations and growing evidence of staff shortages.
Danker said that while a shortage of HGV drivers had dominated the headlines, many other skilled professions were under similar pressure.
The CBI urged the government to marry skills policies to roles with the highest unfilled vacancies, adding greater flexibility to the Apprenticeship Levy and using the government’s immigration levers to alleviate short-term problems.
He also called on businesses to play their part by continuing to invest in training, automation, and digital transformation.
Danker said: “Labour shortages are biting right across the economy. While the CBI and other economists still predict growth returning to pre-pandemic levels later this year, furlough ending is not the panacea some people think will magically fill labour supply gaps. These shortages are already affecting business operations and will have a negative impact on the UK’s economic recovery.
“Building a more innovative economy – coupled with better training and education – can sustainably improve business performance, wages and living standards. But transformation on this scale requires planning and takes time.
“The government’s ambition that the UK economy should become more high-skilled and productive is right. But implying that this can be achieved overnight is simply wrong. And a refusal to deploy temporary and targeted interventions to enable economic recovery is self-defeating.
“Using existing levers at the UK’s control – like placing drivers, welders, butchers and bricklayers on the Shortage Occupation List – could make a real difference. The government promised an immigration system that would focus on the skills we need rather than unrestrained access to overseas labour. Yet here we have obvious and short-term skilled need but a system that can’t seem to respond.”
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The Construction Industry in the UK has to get out of the 19th century of using so much wet trade construction methods
Its expensive, poor construction methods compared with modern dry trade methods
I know from your headline there is a shortage of Bricklayers but the picture used in this article is the worst example of setting a brick i have seen in a long time. The brick is running down a country mile, has no mortar in the cross joint and is forming a straight joint with the course below
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Businesses and the industry in general have been repeatedly told for many years that there was a skills shortage and yet they couldn’t be bothered to train (proper) APPRENTICES. They just relied on cheap labour from European countries or modular training (specific elements of a trade) or self employed (Lump) workers. Now it’s come to bite them back.
RoyA has it spot on and we as an industry only have ourselves to blame for not pushing these no nothing politicians harder.
Just like climate change, we wait until it bites us on the bum before any real notice is taken.