Life after construction

The good news for skills-strapped employers is that 85% of respondents to our survey said they intended to stay in the industry until they retired. The bad news is that they're still not doing enough to encourage women to remain in the industry - a third said they intended to leave it. Work/life balance was a major concern for people who said they would pursue an alternative career.

When people will actually be able to retire is another matter. We asked two questions - when people wanted to retire, and when they actually expected to be able to.

A quarter wanted to retire before they hit 55, a third would be happy with stopping before they were 60 and a further quarter wanted to retire before the current retirement age of 65. Only 15% wanted to work beyond that.

In reality, nearly half of respondents expected to retire between 61 and 65 and another quarter between 66 and 70.

More optimistically, the proportion who expected to still be working after the age of 71 was only slightly higher than those who said they wanted to - architects were the keenest to keep on going, with nearly 9% saying they'd stay on.

The government's warnings of increasing retirement ages and pensioner poverty appear to be leaving the young undaunted - no fewer than a third of 16 to 24 year olds were confident they'd be able to retire before they were 60, even though nearly half said they had made no form of pension provision yet.

Among the over 45s there emerges a gloomier and presumably more realistic picture of the future. Half of those aged between 45 and 54 expected to be working until they were 65, and another quarter until they were 70; for the over 55s, the proportions were 40% and 35%, and 12% expected to still be working after they reached 71.

Even worse, two thirds of respondents said they feared their pension would not be sufficient for a decent standard of living once they did retire. The minority that expected that it would mainly had either a final salary scheme or a personal pension plan.