Introduction
Construction is central to the UK’s economic future, yet the industry faces a workforce challenge that is becoming more pressing each year. Too few people are entering the sector, 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 Industry Picture 2026 combines insight and data to create a clear, accessible view of the whole industry, its circumstances and the skills and people needs. Its aim is to help industry, employers, governments and training providers understand:
what is happening, with a focus on the significant trends
why the challenge persists
and where targeted action can make the greatest impact.
By establishing a shared view of the challenge and a practical framework for action, the Industry Picture will help to provide industry with a clear way forward.
Short on time? Read the The Industry Picture Executive Summary (PDF, 747KB)
Overview
The workforce pressures shaping construction
The construction industry’s challenge is complex. There are many factors leading to the shortage of skills and workers - none of which can be resolved in isolation
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The construction industry’s workforce data and insights highlight three main pressures, and these shape the challenges that follow.
Increasing competition for workers
Construction is not the only sector with a skills gap.
Demand exceeds supply
There aren’t enough people entering the industry to meet future workload.
Retention
Too many people, from new entrants to older workers, leave industry too soon.
The main challenges
When you break these pressures down, they reveal what is actually happening inside the workforce system.
The workforce is shrinking, increasing the competition for talent. This is exacerbated by the disconnect between training and real-world jobs.
The construction workforce is projected to reach around 2.68 million by 2030, which is not sufficient to meet the demand for all planned projects. CITB estimates about 41,200 extra workers are needed each year to meet this demand.
Skilled workers are leaving at all stages of their career. This loss will be compounded in the future as a significant proportion of the workforce approach retirement.
Without better training and smoother ways of working,we can't build what's needed.
Challenge 1
Fewer people are available to the industry
The workforce is shrinking due to an ageing population and low birth rate. This is a challenge faced across all industries and is not specific to the UK.
Demographic trends show there simply aren’t enough young people entering the workforce to meet demand across all sectors
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Number of children is set to decrease as the number of people of pension age increase
Sources: ONS Population projections
Despite competition for talent increasing, the construction sector does not face an overall shortage of available people. Instead, there is a mismatch between the people available to construction employers and those they are seeking to employ. Some of the potential talent pools, namely young people on FE construction courses and unemployed people, are underused because of the perceived effort needed to recruit them.
Industry changers and ex-military favoured by construction employers
Source: Targeted Careers in Construction, CITB, 2025
The system isn’t making a strong enough link to jobs, and as a result, training often doesn’t seamlessly lead into employment.
Employers consistently express a preference for new entrants who demonstrate the 'right attitude' and possess relevant work experience, often noting that many are not 'work-ready'. While real-world experience in construction is highly valued, it is notably difficult to access.
Real-world experience is not readily available
Sources: Skills England Employer Skills Survey, 2024, CITB Construction Apprenticeships 2024–2025, and CITB Work Readiness Report, 2018
Takeaway
Construction needs to widen its recruitment efforts and attract people who may differ from those traditionally brought into the industry. The sector also needs to provide more, and better, access to real-world experience, to help potential new entrants understand the breadth of opportunities available to them.
Challenge 2
Demand for construction skills is growing faster than supply
The construction workforce is projected to reach around 2.75 million by 2029, which is not sufficient to meet the demand for all planned projects. CITB estimates about 48,000 extra workers are needed each year to meet this demand.
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UK construction output is projected to grow steadily
When adding the activity required to fulfil government housing and retrofit ambitions, the annual skills gap could grow from 41,200 to 153,000.
Even if this number were available to the workforce, the education, training and recruitment structures that exist are not sufficient to address this gap.
Potential workforce needed to meet government ambition
Takeaway
The current system is not fit for purpose. We need faster-paced, better-targeted and more accessible and linked training, recruitment and career pathways to meet future demand.
Challenge 3
Too many workers leave industry too soon
The construction workforce is getting older - in 2023 around a quarter of construction workers were aged over 55. An ageing workforce brings two issues: loss of experienced workers due to retirement and potential declines in productivity or ability in physically demanding jobs as workers age.
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The construction workforce is getting older
Sources: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Statistics, Crown Copyright 2024
Manual Workers in Construction Industry (SIC45), UK, 1990, 1999 to 2023
Retention is essential to slow the loss of skilled workers.
The average age of all construction workers is now over 42 and climbing, with a substantial portion of workers set to retire in the next 5-10 years. This highlights the need to attract new entrants and retain mid-career talent to maintain industry capability.
But too many people are leaving construction, and the reasons change by the stage of their career. Young people often drop out early because their first experiences aren’t great, whereas those who are mid-career often look elsewhere due to a lack of career progression as well as other life stage pressures. With more people expected to leave the workforce than enter it, improving retention is as critical as expanding the inflow of new talent.
Reasons for leaving construction vary by age
Sources: The Construction Industry Early Leavers Survey, CITB, April 2017, and the Over 50’s Lifestyle Study, ONS, September 2022
Takeaway
If we don't retain the younger workers of today, we lose the experienced workers of tomorrow.
Challenge 4
Current rates of productivity gains do not plug the workforce gap
Productivity provides the opportunity to do more with fewer people, but even when considering the different ways it can be measured, construction productivity has remained stubbornly flat for decades.
Despite numerous attempts to increase the uptake, off-site methods aren’t widely adopted, and efficiency gains are small and localised.
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Construction’s average productivity has barely increased over time
Source: Output per hour: Construction F SIC07, % change on Y, SA, UK - Office for National Statistics
Industry will not be able to close the workforce gap through recruitment and improved retention alone, meaning improving productivity is essential if it is to meet future demand.
A growing workforce must still possess the right skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours to be considered competent; without this, quality declines and re-work increases.
When comparing new home completions with customer satisfaction data, periods of higher output have often aligned with lower customer satisfaction. Reduced satisfaction typically reflects underlying quality issues that require time and money to resolve, driving up remedial work. This adds cost, diverts resources and ultimately has a negative impact on productivity.
Balancing build volume with quality
Takeaway
Industry needs a stronger capability to adopt new ways of working. Also, better‑trained and more skilled workers are more likely to get things right first time, reducing waste and cutting time spent on remedial work.
The Opportunity
We can deliver, together
One organisation cannot solve the workforce challenge alone. But if industry, government, training providers, and CITB work together the path forward is clear and actionable.
The Industry Picture identifies four areas where co-ordinated action will have the biggest impact:
Attract wider
The available talent pool is broader than the sector currently accesses. To meet future demand, employers must rethink recruitment practices, expand work placement opportunities, and actively support under-represented groups to build a steady flow of 'work-ready' entrants.
At the same time, the sector will need to adopt a more expansive approach to labour sourcing, helping develop more people from a wider range of routes into construction careers to ensure workforce resilience.
Action: Making construction an attractive career choice while providing access to work experience will help new entrants and employers alike.
CITB’s Response: We know training must be better connected to real‑world jobs, which is why we’re developing an intervention to give more young people meaningful workplace exposure by increasing the availability of work experience opportunities.
Connect better
There are not enough new entrants to meet demand, and the training system itself is constrained by capacity, structural limitations, and a shortage of trainers and assessors.
The sector must broaden access to under-represented groups, increase the flexibility and duration of training opportunities, and ensure that training is closely linked to real job opportunities.
Action: The current system is too-often not fit for purpose. We need faster paced, better targeted, accessible and flexible training pathways, closely linked to real jobs to meet future demand.
CITB’s response: Accelerated Apprenticeships will speed up the entry of new people to the workforce. We’re also developing additional flexible entry routes to bring in more newcomers and make upskilling to occupational competence easier for anyone already working in construction.
Retain longer
With an ageing workforce and more people leaving the industry than joining, improving retention at all career stages is no longer optional. Supporting older workers, offering flexible or less physically intensive roles, and improving workplace culture will help to reduce churn.
Action: Retention is critical. If we don’t retain younger workers today, we lose the experienced workforce of tomorrow. But we also need to retain workers for longer at every stage of their career by offering different or more flexible work options.
CITB’s response: The capacity and skills gap cannot be closed through new entrants alone, and CITB has an important role to play in improving retention. We are currently assessing where we can have the greatest impact and are offering funding for industry-led solutions.
Modernise faster
Raising productivity is essential for the construction industry to deliver more with the workforce it has, at greater pace and with consistent quality. Achieving this requires not just more workers, but a workforce that is more competent, adaptable, digitally literate, and capable of delivering high-quality work efficiently.
Action: Making use of modern technologies and finding ways to work more efficiently are critical in building capacity and bridging the gap in the skilled workforce.
CITB's Response: A skilled workforce leads to productivity improvements. That’s why we’re focusing on raising competency across both new entrants and the existing workforce. We support a wide range of training associated with productivity improvement and are funding industry-led pilots to test productivity improvement in construction businesses.
Summary
The construction industry faces a people shortage: not enough workers joining, too many leaving, and productivity gains are not great enough to plug the gap.
The good news is the solutions are clear. We need to broaden the talent pools from which industry recruits, improve training pathways, support people to stay, and modernise working practices. Together these changes can close the skills gap and build a more resilient workforce.
If we don’t act now, the gap will keep growing. This could mean:
Projects take longer to complete and costs rise
Quality drops, and rework activity impacts productivity
Government targets slip further out of reach, impacting the whole of society.
But if we work together, we can:
Improve diversity of our workforce
Create more fulfilling careers
Introduce smarter ways of working.
Create the future workforce we need.
Full report
Explore more of the data that informs this report: The Industry Picture (PDF, 921KB).
