Construction
industry had its worst month in more than a year in May as customers postponed
investment in the face of Brexit uncertainty and the sector lost jobs at the
fastest rate since 2012.
The IHS Markit/CIPS
construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 48.6, the lowest reading
since March 2018, when the country was in the grip of an unusually cold winter.
“Commercial building
remained hardest-hit by Brexit uncertainty, with construction firms reporting
the steepest fall in this category of activity since September 2017,” Tim
Moore, associate director at IHS Markit, said.
Civil engineering
work fell for a fourth straight month — the longest such run since the first
half of 2013, when Britain was still in the shadow of the financial crisis —
and growth in house-building remained softer than on average in 2018.
“Reduced workloads
led to more cautious recruitment strategies and the non-replacement of
departing staff in May,” IHS Markit said.
Adding to signs of a
loss of momentum in the economy, a PMI published earlier this week for
Britain’s manufacturing sector was the weakest in almost three years.
It comes after both
the CBI and Make, the manufacturers' organisation, warned about the dire
consequences of a No Deal Brexit after a prolonged period of decline and
stagnation for a lot of UK industries, including construction.
