A further 27,000 jobs at least will go in the building sector over the next two years, according to construction economic institute EIB.

Some 50,000 jobs have already gone in the four years since the crisis began, taking the unemployment rate among building workers to 11%, the EIB said. 

Investment in construction is expected to fall still further. The recovery may not set in until between 2015 and 2018, particularly in the housing market as new mortgage rules continue to have an impact on people’s ability to move home, the institute said.

Housing

Production is set to fall by 5% this year to around €50bn, following a 7% decline in 2012. Housing has born the brunt of the losses and will decline almost 20% in value in 2012 and 2013.

In European terms, the construction sector is only in a worse shape in Spain, Ireland and Portugal, the EIB said.

‘Compared with Germany, Belgium and France the decline in investment in the Dutch housing sector is particularly large,’ a spokesman told RTL news.