PHOTO:KEVIN STENT/STUFF Workers at Maritime Tower, Wellington’s tallest new building currently under construction.
While building work is springing back to life, a construction downturn with huge job losses is due next year, according to Westpac.
Senior economist Satish Ranchhod said that with up to a quarter of a million people in construction related jobs, it was quite possible that up to 20,000 jobs were in danger, as projects in the early stages failed to go ahead.
”The coming year will see large falls in privately funded residential and commercial construction, putting large numbers of jobs at risk.”
He predicted residential building work would fall 20 per cent below pre-Covid levels in the year ahead, as clients battled with ”job losses, stretched balance sheets, and nervousness about the economic backdrop”.
Population growth would be also be a dampener, even though many parts of the country would still be wrestling with a shortage of houses for some time.
Commercial construction was set to fall by an estimated 15 per cent over 2021 and 2022, weighed down by weak tenant demand and investor nerves.
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