Olympic build jobs fall as venues near completion

The number of people building the Olympic park and village has begun to fall as the biggest phase of work comes to an end.

Figures from the Olympic Delivery Authority showed 10,621 people worked for contractors on the projects at the end of June. A total of 39,613 people have worked on the schemes between April 2008 and June 2011.

The ODA said it had exceeded its target of providing 350 apprenticeships and had actually employed 457 apprentices by the end of June 2011.

A quarter of the workforce live in the five Olympic boroughs exceeding the authority’s target of 15%.

The ODA said 11% of workers in June on the Olympic village and 13% on the park were previously unemployed compared with its target for 7% of staff to have been out of work before taking up their posts.

Last month it also exceeded its target of 15% of people employed by contractors in the park coming from ethnic minorities by 14% but missed the target by 1% in the village.

The authority also missed its target for the proportion of women and disabled people employed by building firms in both the park and village in June.

ODA director of construction Howard Shiplee said: “The transformation of the Olympic park has already started to create a physical London 2012 legacy for east London. By meeting our commitments to help provide training and employment opportunities for local and previously unemployed people the “big build” has also created a positive employment legacy for thousands of people.”