RICS survey finds drop in vacancies as private sector work falls.
Vacancies in the construction industry have fallen by 2% in the last year, according to the latest RICS economic briefing. It says that the skills shortage has eased over the 12-month period as the economy has slowed, taking pressure off of costs and wages.
Monthly vacancies dropped to below 20,000 in the third quarter of 2005, against around 23,000 for the same period in 2003 and 2004.
RICS says that much of the weakening in output has been in housing maintenance and repair, where private sector work has been declining for 18 months. It puts this down to the slowdown in house prices, and more particularly, to the fact that the buy-to-let market is not as buoyant as it was.
RICS continues to agree with most commentators who predict that the housing market will have a soft landing. It points out that new-build construction has not been so badly affected, contrasting this with the sharp downturn in the sector at the end of the 1980s boom. It said that it expected the residential property market to continue to recover.
