The UK construction industry reportedly has a positive outlook heading into the new year.

Ecommerce manager at IronmongeryDirect, Ellis Osborn discusses why the industry is off to a strong start, backed by the latest government data.

The number of workers in the sector has “risen over the last 12 months, and now stands at 2.25m,” which is a 36k or 1.6% increase from 2022.

Osborn reports that the largest increase in workforce numbers was seen in the West Midlands, which now has almost 30% more employees.

The South East came second place with an increase of 10%, “and remains the most popular place for construction workers, with 350k in total.”

While a “significant proportion of the growth has been seen in the self-employed section of the industry,” with over 300k; the highest it’s been for four years, with a 22% increase from that of last year.

The number of female self-employed workers also doubled to 24k in the last 12 months.

“While the value of construction output fell slightly (0.5%) in October to £15,485m, this was largely due to planned work being delayed by bad weather, and the figure is still 1% up compared to the same month last year.”

Osborn makes a point to highlight that the latest data suggests the industry is in a “positive place moving into 2024.”