The number of hits on the Demolition Jobs website escalate as the recession bites.
www.demolition-jobs.co.uk, the website established by the National Federation of Demolition Contractors to help unemployed demolition workers advertise their availability to work to prospective employers, has seen a jump in traffic levels during the past month, underlining fears that the recession is impacting upon the industry’s workforce.
“We monitor the site statistics very closely and we have seen a very sharp increase in levels over the past few weeks,” says the site’s co-founder Mark Anthony. “I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, I am pleased that this free service is proving popular and that the thinking behind it was sound. But the fact that more people are now having to use it suggests that job losses are on the rise. Frankly, I’d love to see the site fail because the industry was sufficiently bouyant to provide full employment.”
Another key fact is the level of qualification of many of the site’s users. “When we initially discussed the site, I think we were all expecting it to be used primarily by site operatives, partly because there are more of them but also because many of them are of an age where Internet use is more common,” Anthony continues. “But the registrants on the site at present are generally individuals with more ‘managerial’ experience. The site currently has a contracts manager, a demolition manager and a pair of site supervisors actively seeking work.”
Anthony says that, although the site’s traffic stats are telling, he’s unwilling to draw specific conclusions about geographic downturns. “The site has certainly received more registrations from the NFDC’s London & Southern Counties Region but I am sure that’s due, at least in part, to the fact that this is traditionally the biggest area for employment in the UK demolition sector,” he concludes.
