Research Outline

UK Recruitment Industry - Construction Sector

Goals

To determine the size of the construction segment of the UK recruitment industry. This information will be used to show the size of the opportunity that is available to a recruitment technology company in the construction space in the UK.

Early Findings

Building on the previous report, we ahead to identify some useful data on the construction segment of the UK recruitment industry. Below are some of our findings:
  • The average cost of recruitment for a new employee in the UK is £3,000, according to a recent report by Glassdoor.
  • In 2018, construction represented 7.7% of the entire UK permanent workforce. As of 2019, there were 2.4 million jobs in the construction sector, which represents 7% of all jobs in the UK.
  • The entire UK recruitment industry pulled in revenue totaling £35.7 billion in 2018. Also, as high as 36% of all self-employed professionals in the UK work in the construction industry.
  • The UK construction industry is currently facing considerable challenges — chief among them being the aging workforce of skilled workers, which is also further exacerbated by the growing concerns over Brexit. According to the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), the sector will require 157,000 new recruits by 2021.
  • There are currently no publicly available reports that detail the size of the construction segment of the UK recruitment industry. However, it is possible to infer from some of the data already found.
  • Assuming the UK recruitment industry charges a flat fee for recruiting each worker irrespective of sector, then we safely estimate that the construction sector of the UK recruitment industry generated revenue totaling £2.5 billion in 2018 (i.e., 7% of the total workforce * £35.7 billion).