Produce a short report of no more than 1000 words about the UK construction industry. Your report should focus on one of the following areas: trends in employment in the industry; composition of industry in terms of the numbers and types of firms within the industry; value of work undertaken by the industry. You are encouraged to include graphs in your report.

Construction overview The construction sector is a key sector for the UK economy. For the purpose of this publication, the construction sector is defined as: (i) construction contracting industry; (ii) provision of construction related professional services; and (iii) construction related products and materials1 . Construction is one of the largest sectors of the UK economy. It contributes almost £90 billion to the UK economy (or 6.7%)2 in value added, comprises over 280,000 businesses3 covering some 2.93 million jobs4 , which is equivalent to about 10% of total UK employment. The construction sector has been affected disproportionately since the recession of 2008. In 2007 the construction sector accounted for 8.9% of the UK’s GVA but by 2011 the sector contribution had decreased to 6.7%. In early 2012, the construction contracting industry returned to recession for the third time in 5 years. Despite recent economic and financial crisis which affected most developed economies, the UK construction contracting industry remains one of the largest in Europe, measured by employment, number of enterprises, and gross value added5 . However, UK construction industry is also more fragmented than its major European competitors and the evidence shows it has higher levels of sub-contracting6