Apprentices in construction are disproportionately male and of white ethnicity
Apprenticeship starts in construction in England, by sex (thousands, LHS) and share who are male (%, RHS)
Construction apprenticeships dominated by males
Apprenticeships in construction are male dominated. In 2022/23, 90.8% of construction apprenticeship starts were male, which compares to 48.8% for all apprenticeships. This is a fall from 92.6% in 2021/22 and is down from 97% in 2016/17. There has been some progress in increasing the number of female construction apprentices. The number of female apprentices in construction has risen at an average annual growth rate of 24% from 2016/17 to 2022/23. This compares to an annual average growth rate of 1.3% for males over the same period. However, the growth in female apprentices is from a small base and construction apprentices are still overwhelmingly male. This is reflected in the construction labour market; in the first quarter of 2024, 86% of those employed in construction were men.
Male (000s, LHS)
Female (000s, LHS)
Share who are male (%, RHS)
30
100
20
95
10
90
0
85
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23
Apprenticeship starts in construction in England, by ethnicity (thousands, LHS) and share who are white (%, RHS)
Vast majority of construction apprentices are white
White (000s, LHS)
Non-white (000s, LHS)
A similar lack of diversity is seen when looking at ethnicity. In 2022/23, 92.1% of construction apprentices were white. This compares to 83.0% of all apprenticeship starters in 2022/23. Looking over time, there has been some progress in having more non-white construction apprentices. The share of construction apprentices that are white has been on a slight downward trend from the 95.6% seen in 2016/17 but remains at disproportionately high levels.
Share who are white(%, RHS)
30
96.0
20
94.0
10
92.0
0
90.0
2016/17 2017/18 2018/19 2019/20 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23
Sources: Capital Economics and the Department for Education
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