A rising number of workers in the building industry are being told not to return to work after the annual summer holiday, reports Tuesday’s Financieele Dagblad.

Elco Brinkman, head of the building company association Bouwend Nederland, told the paper that the future looks much worse than originally expected, with a loss of around 40,000 jobs in 2010. In July the figure was 30,000.
The sector has been hard hit by the cancellation of large construction projects by councils, the reluctance of banks to extend credit and lack of government intervention.