Building and engineering jobs are suffering due to the current shortage of residential building.
The Bureau of Statistics revealed a 3.7 per cent fall in the value of construction work done during the first three months of the year, adjusted for seasonal factors. The report gives further support to private survey findings that the construction industry has yet to reach its lows and may continue to shrink into next year, and also casts some doubt on the effectiveness of the increased first home owner grant in stimulating extra demand for new houses and apartments.
However, no sectors were immune, with non-residential building down 2.1 per cent and engineering down 3 per cent in the March quarter, seasonally adjusted.
The trend for engineering still remains positive, and the volume of work done in that sector was still substantially higher than at the same time last year, but clearly easing from peaks reached during the height of the mining boom.
Join the discussion on Building & Construction
|