The Olympics will cause a surge in demand for construction skills
The construction industry needs to find 182,000 more workers in the rush to complete buildings for the 2012 London Olympics, an industry body says.
As well as Olympic facilities and transport, the extra workers are also needed for other UK building projects.
The forecast by the Construction Skills Network includes the need to recruit 15,000 more plumbers by 2012.
But the network says it is confident that a lack of workers will not be an obstacle completing projects on time.
Skills shortage?
The drive to prepare for the 2012 Olympic games involves a series of massive building projects - not just the showcase stadiums and Olympic park, but also transport and regeneration schemes.
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY 2012
2.8m workers
8.4% increase in construction workers needed in Greater London
13,000 more bricklayers needed
15,000 more plumbers
£9.3bn Olympic budget for construction, transport and regeneration
The report from the building skills body highlights the scale of the spike in demand for construction workers - alongside the needs of existing projects such as a major school and hospital re-building programmes.
Although the forecasts for the needs for extra workers does not include the Crossrail project, which is also set to begin before the Olympics.
The Construction Skills Network, which says the demand will peak in 2011, is predicting that there will be a need for 2.8m people to be working in the construction industry across the UK in the run up to the Olympics.
This projected workforce will include 122,000 bricklayers, 161,000 painters, 211,000 electricians and 189,000 plumbers.
Speaking on behalf of the skills network, Sandra Lilley said that there were efforts to recruit, train and re-train people to work in building trades in the growth areas of London and the south-east of England.
The "demand forecasting" model used to calculate the need for specific trades is designed to help the construction industry anticipate its training needs.
There are already plans underway to set up national network of work-based training centres, called the National Skills Academy for Construction.
But Ms Lilley was confident that a lack of workers would not be an obstacle to getting the Olympic projects built within the time remaining - as the building industry has already experienced a substantial growth in the years since the Millennium.
She said that it was likely that this would include recruiting migrant workers - but there were no figures to suggest what proportion of extra workers would need to be brought from overseas.
The chairman of the Construction Skills Network, Sir Michael Latham, said: "We've identified the scale of skills needs by project and region over the coming years.
"Now it is essential that we work with employers and training providers to put in place the right practical, on-site training that will help local people get the skills they need to fill local job vacancies."
