Does the sudden movement in the demolition job market mean we’re out of the woods?
We have been writing about the downturn in the global demolition business virtually since Demolition News opened its virtual doors. In fact, terms like “banking meltdown”, “low bid” and “job losses” have become as much a part of our industry vocabulary as “high reach excavator”, “implosion”, and “US site accident”.
So we’ve been rather caught by surprise by what appears to a sudden (but nonetheless welcome) upturn in the demolition job market, at least here in the UK.
Even in the run-up to Christmas, we were regularly reporting on job losses, lay-offs and redundancies. But, suddenly, these seem to have been replaced by job advertisements from UK contractors that have ridden out the economic storm and are now preparing to climb out of the red and back into the black.
Now, admittedly, five or six recruitment adverts do not a recovery make. But (and it’s a big but) the jobs that we’re aware of are spread across the whole of the UK and all are for highly-skilled and, therefore, highly paid individuals. In other words, not the kind of jobs that become readily available when “times is ‘ard”.
Of course, with the London 2012 Olympics drawing ever closer (and with Gordon Brown doing his level best to buy an unlikely General Election victory with an increase in public spending), there is likely to be an increase in available work. And if the UK Government’s chief construction adviser is to be believed, we stand on the very brink of an environmentally-fuelled boom to rid the country of its stock of its less-than-green building stock.
But is this a real upturn? Or is it merely another false dawn that will end in further frustration, disappointment and job losses?
We’d love to hear what you think so please use the Comment area below.
