National research from Powered Now, a field service management software that specialises in trades, has unveiled that 18% of Brits sought a new career path in the trades as a result of the pandemic. Analysts suggest that the increased switch to trade careers is fuelled by the UK’s home improvement boom. Market research provider Kantar indicates that £4.94bn was spent on home improvements last year, £552m more than the previous year. As tradespeople have been inundated with work, new employment opportunities may have been created.
Powered Now’s research also found that the pandemic has been a catalyst for diversifying the UK’s trade workforce: 15% of people considering the trades as a career are female. Further findings are as follows: 15% of tradespeople have seen their client demand increase during the Covid-19 pandemic; 17% of tradespeople regularly work over 10 hours a day; 16% of tradespeople agree that sequential waves of Covid-19 made them more motivated to work.
Ben Dyer, CEO of Powered Now, said: “It’s incredibly encouraging to see the UK construction market continuing to recover from the shutdown. Continual growth in PMI data mirrors what we are seeing at Powered Now, a continued demand for services fuelled by a record housing market. This is great news, and it just goes to show how important these sectors are when it comes to recovering from the problems caused by Covid-19.
“The whole industry is still in catch up mode, and the various projects that were delayed by sequential lockdowns are now taking priority. This has helped to spike demand and we expect it to continue in the short term. Our research has entirely confirmed that tradespeople and consumers alike are very much eager to sustain this growth.
“Our SME customers are also talking about the pressure to complete jobs as they don’t have enough boots on the ground. As we have seen from the sentiments established in this research, a new wave of tradespeople are more motivated to work and are commencing their work on home improvements even sooner. These concerns are also sure to help the sector bounce back even quicker as people will rush to hire a tradesperson for their desired work.”
