BUILDING SITE JOBS HELL.

Byline: SENAN HOGAN 

HUNDREDS of builders across the country will join the dole queues next week when their two-week summer holiday ends.

Many bosses have picked the annual leave period to lay off employees and they will have no building sites to go back to after Bank Holiday weekend.

Around 72,000 construction workers lost their jobs in the first three months of 2009 and the Construction Industry Federation said this trend has continued.

A CIF spokesman added: "The annual construction holiday is usually a time for workers to be laid off.

"However that figure will be higher than normal this year given the monthly level of job losses we have seen this year."

One forklift driver said: "The boss told us to stretch out the job until we got the holidays because there would be no work after that.

"It's tough being laid off when you know there's not much else out there. It is an expensive time of the year with all the backto-school costs."

CIF chiefs urged the Government to make job creation in the construction industry a top priority in December's Budget.

Director general Tom Parlon said: "The construction industry offers an opportunity for jobs by prioritising badly-needed labourintensive construction projects."

And CIF chiefs told householders: "There is fantastic value out there at the moment for small-scale construction projects like renovations and home improvements."

CAPTION(S):

BARGAINS Laid-off construction workers in market for home renovations