Training body urges government to collaborate with industry to improve worker attraction and retention rates
The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has warned that the construction skills shortage will lead to a “widening” gap between project demand and the industry’s capacity to deliver.
In its latest “Industry Picture 2026” report, the board forecasted that leaving the skills gap unaddressed “puts the industry at increased risk” and will lead to delayed or cancelled homes and infrastructure projects.
It also highlighted economic consequences, including hindering the volume of work that can be delivered and pushing up tender prices as firms compete for labour and skills.
Marcus Bennett, CITB head of industry analysis and forecasting, said: “Construction is central to the UK’s economic future, yet the industry faces a workforce challenge that is becoming more pressing each year.
“Not enough people are entering the industry, too many experienced workers are leaving, and productivity has not improved at a sufficient rate to plug the gap. As a result, the industry’s capacity to deliver on housing, infrastructure and retrofit commitments, is under increasing strain.”
The report recommended a collaborative approach between industry leaders, government bodies, training providers and CITB to “make construction a more attractive career option, connect better training with real job opportunities, improve flexibility to retain more workers at every stage of their career and make better use of modern technologies”.
Construction recorded the highest hard‑to‑fill vacancy density in the 2024 Employer Skills Survey, according to the Department for Education’s published report.
Hard‑to‑fill vacancy density measures recruitment difficulty in the labour market by showing how many job vacancies employers struggle to recruit for, relative to the size of the workforce or total vacancies in that sector.
The CITB previously forecasted that the UK construction sector will need an additional 239,300 construction workers between 2025 and 2029, equivalent to nearly 48,000 recruits a year, to meet projected demand.
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