Young unemployed offered training or job opportunities in construction – BCIS chief economist

Dr David Crosthwaite, BCIS – chief economist, said:

There is a risk that schemes built around compliance or sanctions place young people into roles that do not align with their skills, interests or longer-term aspirations.

For construction, which already faces persistent challenges attracting and retaining new entrants, the priority should be creating conditions that make the sector a positive and deliberate career choice rather than a default option.

There is also the practical concern of placing inexperienced young people on potentially dangerous work sites without adequate training.

Fundamentally, the industry is suffering from a skills shortage rather than a shortage of general labour, so the focus should be on building capability, not just filling labourer vacancies.

At the same time, there could be clear benefits for employers.

Many construction firms have stopped replacing workers or paused plans to grow their teams because of cost pressures and uncertainty in the market.

If government programmes provide meaningful support with hiring and training costs, this could help firms take on young people they might otherwise be unable to afford to recruit or develop.

That could strengthen early-career pipelines at a time when workforce capacity is one of the biggest constraints on delivery.