Construction remains a male and white dominated industry
Gender split by industry in the UK as of Q1 2024 (%)
86% of construction workers are male
As of the start of 2024, data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the construction industry had the highest share of male employees of any industry based on the broad sector definitions from the Office for National Statistics. Around 86% of the workforce within the construction industry was made up of male employees, compared to 51% across the whole economy. The share of male employment in the sector has been fairly consistent over time. In 1997, 87% of workers were male. This rose to a peak of 90% in 2011 since which it has fallen back slowly to 86%.
Construction Transport Agriculture Manufacturing Finance & prof. services Retail Administration Hospitality Education Health
Female Male
The construction industry exhibits low levels of diversity
0
20 40 60 80 100
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, employment in the construction sector is made up of 93.1% workers of white ethnicity. A further 3.0% is Asian, 1.7% black and 1.3% mixed. This compares to the ethnicity breakdown of the workforce as a whole which is 86.7% white, 7.1% Asian, 3.2% black and 1.5% mixed. There is some variation between occupations related to repair and maintenance activities in the construction sector. At 92.1%, general builder occupations had the lowest share of white workers, compared to steel erectors which had the highest share at 96.9%.
Diversity split by occupation* in England and Wales as of 2021 (%)
White Asian Black Mixed Other
100.0
95.0
90.0
85.0
Source: Capital Economics and the Office for National Statistics *Note: Due to gaps in the data some categories have been rebased to sum to 100%
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