IN Brief:
- Construction was the lowest-confidence sector in APM’s January 2026 tracking, with confidence in successful project delivery falling to 20%.
- Only 43% of construction leaders said it was easy to recruit people with the right skills, underlining the depth of the labour squeeze.
- Data literacy has moved to the top of the skills agenda as project teams rely more heavily on AI, reporting tools, and performance data.
Confidence in construction project delivery has fallen sharply at the start of 2026, with new research pointing to a sector under pressure from recruitment difficulties, weaker investment in skills, and tighter confidence in whether projects can be delivered successfully.
Association for Project Management said confidence among construction business leaders in their own organisation’s ability to deliver projects successfully dropped to 20% in January 2026, down from 57% in October 2025 and 60% in July 2025. Construction was the lowest-ranked sector in the January reading, while transport and logistics remained at 65% and technology at 69%.
The survey’s recruitment findings were no less stark. Only 43% of leaders in construction said it was easy to recruit people with the right skills, reinforcing a pattern that has moved from persistent concern to operational constraint. In practice, that affects more than headcount. It narrows the pool for project controls, planning, commercial oversight, digital coordination, and site leadership at the same time as delivery structures are becoming more data-heavy and less tolerant of weak information flow.
Professor Adam Boddison OBE, chief executive of APM, said: “It’s vital business leaders take action now, so they can be confident in their ability to deliver the changes that will drive strategic success and ensure their organisations remain adaptable.”
The timing is awkward. Official construction output data showed the sector still working through a soft patch, with total output down over the three months to January 2026, new work lower over the same period, and private new housing among the largest negative contributors. That is not the backdrop for easy project delivery. When workloads are uneven, margins remain exposed, and hiring is difficult, confidence tends to retreat first in the places where planning, sequencing, procurement, and commercial management are already under strain.
The survey also pointed to a change in the type of capability businesses now value most. For the first time, data literacy ranked as the most important skill for project professionals. That reflects a construction environment in which project teams are expected to interpret dashboards, forecast risk from live data, manage increasingly digital reporting chains, and use AI-led tools without confusing volume of information with useful insight. The technical challenge is no longer confined to specialist digital roles. It now reaches into mainstream project delivery.
That shift has implications for training budgets and workforce development. A sector short of planners, project managers, engineers, supervisors, and experienced site staff is now also being asked to upgrade its ability to work with data at every stage of delivery. APM has published an APM data literacy skills framework to formalise the capabilities it sees as increasingly central to project performance.
The broader labour picture remains unforgiving, and weaker confidence in delivery is more than a sentiment measure. It is a warning that project complexity, digital expectations, and workforce constraints are converging faster than many businesses have managed to adapt.
