I am always more than interested in the surveys which drop on to my desk but some are so interesting they deserve an airing. So this is one of the times when my comment article almost writes itself - with, in this case, a little help from a survey by recruitment specialist Resourcing Solutions.


More than two thirds of quantity surveyors in the UK have, during the last few months, experienced one of the busiest periods in their professional careers, according to the survey.

And many believed it would become busier as 63% of the sample stated the impact of big construction projects, such as the London Olympic site, had not yet hit them and 56% expected that to change in the next year.

Resourcing Solutions reported more than 53% of respondents felt this busy period could be attributed to the sheer amount of work - and the lack of qualified staff.

Nearly 40% said it was manically busy, while 48% felt that it had just evened out after a particularly busy period.

And 38% thought it was more hectic than they would like and that it was affecting their work/life balance.

Perhaps the more crucial question is that respondents were asked why there were issues in filling permanent positions. Some 30% believed this was down to the poor quality of candidates, 40% felt salaries did not match expectations and a further 12% thought that not enough people were qualifying.

Oliver Behrendt of Resourcing Solutions says the view seems to be that there are simply not enough qualified people in the market and that those recently qualified and new to the industry do not have the required experience.

'This is going to be a difficult and expensive issue to resolve,' he says and I agree with him.

It takes time to train people and while this is happening they are a drain on resources.

Even then, those who qualify have to gain experience so they are not working to their full capacity for some while.

Nevertheless recruitment and training must be tackled because the one thing which everyone is sure of is that the sector is going to be even busier in the next few years as a number of major construction projects are kicked off.

Surprisingly, the survey did end on apositive note.

Nearly 70% of the survey's respondents were happy with their work and said the projects they were working on were both career enhancing and satisfying.

Nice to have a bit of optimism for a change!

Paul Braithwaite,

editor