ONS figures show number of jobs in fourth quarter fell to 2,128,000

The number of construction jobs fell by 8,000 in the fourth quarter of last year, figures from the Office of National Statistics show.

At the end of 2010 there were 2,128,000 construction jobs, down by just over 50,000 from 2,180,000 at the end of 2009.

The drop took the total number of jobs lost from September 2008, when numbers peaked at 2,374,000, to 246,000 - a loss of more than one in ten jobs.

Figures last month showed redundancies in the fourth quarter were also up 11,000 on the previous year.