Builders back to work: Construction workers lead way in jobs rush
HUNDREDS of thousands of construction workers are off benefits and helping to build a prosperous UK, unemployment figures show.
Labourers, drivers and tradesmen in the building sector are leading the way in finding jobs, indicating the industry’s role as a barometer for the economy.
Unemployment figures for the past five years show 8,915 bricklayers have come off benefits, plus 8,885 plumbers and 7,515 plasterers.
In all, more than 80,000 labourers are now back in work, with just 41,515 claiming jobseeker’s allowance last month, compared with 120,000-plus when the Coalition came to power.
Other trades with sharp falls in unemployment are carpenters, electricians, and painters and decorators, with more than 10,000 back at work.
The Government’s long-term economic plan to get the country back on track is working
Official statistics show the number claiming jobseeker’s allowance has fallen in all trades by 44 per cent in the past five years, from 1.5million when Labour was in government in 2010, to 850,000 at the start of this year.
Work and Pensions Minister Iain Duncan Smith last night welcomed the figures, obtained by the Sunday Express in a Freedom of Information request.
“With unemployment continuing to fall, wages rising and a record number of people in work, it’s clear that the Government’s long-term economic plan to get the country back on track is working,” he said.
The upturn has seen 40,900 skilled van drivers coming off the dole, 15,475 fork-lift truck drivers finding jobs and 7,480 HGV drivers back at work.
However, retail workers have suffered in the past five years because of online shopping and out-of-town malls.
More than 315,000 now claim unemployment benefit, an increase of more than 100,000 from May 2010.
