IN Brief:
- CITB found 34% of construction workers had worked no more than 20 miles from home.
- The share working more than 100 miles away has fallen from 21% in 2015 to 10%.
- More localised labour markets increase the importance of regional training aligned with credible construction pipelines.
Construction Industry Training Board research suggests that construction labour markets are becoming more localised, with fewer workers travelling long distances for employment than in earlier surveys. The Workforce Mobility and Skills in the UK Construction Sector 2025 report strengthens the case for training and recruitment strategies built around regional project pipelines rather than an assumption that labour will move freely to wherever demand appears.
CITB found that 34% of construction workers had worked no more than 20 miles from home during the previous 12 months. A further 28% had worked more than 50 miles away, down from 32% in 2022, while the longer-term figures show a larger shift at the upper end of the distance range.
Only 18% of workers had worked between 50 and 100 miles from home, compared with 26% in 2015. The proportion working more than 100 miles away has fallen from 21% in 2015 to 10%, cutting in half the share of the workforce prepared or able to take jobs at that distance.
Workforce mobility has traditionally helped construction absorb uneven demand. Major infrastructure, housing, and commercial programmes create peaks in particular regions and trades, allowing contractors to draw on labour from elsewhere when local capacity is insufficient. CITB’s latest data suggests that model is becoming less dependable as family, lifestyle, and personal circumstances exert more influence over where people choose to work.
Lee Bryer, Insights Manager at CITB, said: “Construction has traditionally relied on workforce mobility to help meet demand, but the evidence suggests that model may become less effective…”
The change arrives as government policy puts greater emphasis on technical education and local employer connections. New technical routes announced in July are intended to give 14-year-olds earlier access to technical skills, work experience, and contact with employers, adding another local dimension to how future workers encounter construction and other vocational sectors.
CITB is already working with Mayoral Strategic Authorities and regional leaders to understand local labour-market needs and develop action plans around regional priorities. The approach fits a wider devolution agenda in which combined authorities have increasing influence over housing, transport, regeneration, and skills spending, bringing workforce planning closer to the project pipelines that create demand.
Construction demand will not be distributed evenly. Grid upgrades, rail programmes, housing growth, retrofit, and public-sector investment can create intense requirements for electricians, plant operators, supervisors, engineers, and specialist trades in one region while another faces a different workload profile.
A less mobile workforce raises the cost of getting that mismatch wrong. Contractors that price projects on the assumption that labour can be brought in from elsewhere may face higher agency costs, accommodation expenses, wage pressure, or slower mobilisation if workers are unwilling to travel the distances anticipated at tender stage.
Local training capacity therefore becomes part of project planning. Colleges, apprenticeships, employer networks, and regional skills programmes need enough notice of future demand to expand provision before shortages become acute, because experienced construction workers cannot be produced at the same speed as a project can move from consent into procurement.
The industry will still need a mobile specialist workforce. Some occupations are too scarce to be developed independently in every region, and large projects will continue to draw experienced teams across local boundaries. The change suggested by CITB is in the balance between that specialist mobility and the broader workforce needed for sustained delivery.
Earlier CITB workforce forecasts have already identified a substantial national recruitment requirement, but aggregate numbers can disguise where shortages will occur. A national pool of workers offers limited comfort if the trades required for a live programme are concentrated hundreds of miles away and increasingly reluctant to travel.
More place-based planning should also improve the link between public investment and local economic benefit. Where authorities can see credible housing, infrastructure, and retrofit pipelines several years ahead, training provision can be aligned with the occupations those programmes will actually require rather than generic targets detached from procurement schedules.
That alignment still depends on project certainty. Training providers cannot plan effectively around schemes that remain speculative, while contractors are unlikely to invest heavily in local recruitment without confidence that workloads will persist. Regional skills strategies will work best where infrastructure and development pipelines are realistic enough to support decisions years before site labour peaks.
CITB’s mobility figures make the risk increasingly visible. If the share of workers prepared to travel long distances continues to fall, construction will have less room to solve regional shortages by moving people around at short notice. The alternative is slower but more durable: build more of the required workforce close to the places where the work is expected to happen.
