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While unemployment is reaching new post‐war record levels, concern is being expressed about apparent skill shortages in established occupations in many local labour market areas. In Coventry, for example, employment in the engineering industry fell by 9,500 between 1971 and 1976 whilst simultaneously personnel managers were expressing concern about problems in filling vacancies. A number of indicators have been examined to determine whether a shortage situation does exist in the Coventry area and proposals to remedy the situation found are suggested. Attention is also drawn to the implications for general employment prospects in the local economy if action is not taken.

This paper aims to quantify the impact of craft worker shortage on construction project safety performance.

A database of 50 North American construction projects completed between 2001 and 2014 was compiled by taking information from a research project survey and the Construction Industry Institute Benchmarking and Metrics Database. The t-test and Mann-Whitney test were used to determine whether there was a significant difference in construction project safety performance on projects with craft worker recruiting difficulty. Poisson regression analysis was then used to examine the relationship between craft worker recruiting difficulty and Occupational Safety and Health Administration Total Number of Recordable Incident Cases per 200,000 Actual Direct Work Hours (TRIR) on construction projects.

The result showed that the TRIR distribution of a group of projects that reported craft worker recruiting difficulty tended to be higher than the TRIR distribution of a group of projects with no craft worker recruiting difficulty (p-value = 0.004). Moreover, the average TRIR of the projects that reported craft worker recruiting difficulty was more than two times the average TRIR of projects that experienced no craft recruiting difficulty (p-value = 0.035). Furthermore, the Poisson regression analysis demonstrated that there was a positive exponential relationship between craft worker recruiting difficulty and TRIR in construction projects (p-value = 0.004).

The projects used to construct the database are heavily weighted towards industrial construction.

There have been significant long-term gains in construction safety within the USA. However, if recent craft shortages continue, the quantitative analyses presented herein indicate a strong possibility that more safety incidents will occur unless the shortages are reversed. Innovative construction means and methods should be developed and adopted to work in a safe manner with a less qualified workforce.

The Poisson regression model is the first model that quantifiably links project craft worker availability to construction project safety performance.

This paper aims to investigate the current status of manpower capability, and to identify the key factors that influenced the development of manpower capability within private house building companies in Libya.

The aim and the proposition of the research are set out after a literature review and synthesis. Then a multiple case study approach is adopted to conduct exploratory case studies into joint venture housing projects.

The findings of the study confirm that there should be an interlinked tripartite strategy between the Government, foreign investors and local private house building firms to improve manpower capability so that the Government's housing targets are achieved and sustained. The proposed integrated framework offers a targeted approach to achieve a stepped change in achieving both a quantitative and qualitative growth in housing.

The paper makes an original contribution to the knowledge on joint venture house building in developing countries. The research identifies the current strengths and weaknesses of manpower in professing a stepped change in the area to meet the needs of the Government's housing target, and while the majority of the changes are applicable within the Libyan case study context, opportunities exist to generalise towards other developing countries thereby to gain further value out of this research.

As the development agenda for sub‐Sahara Africa (SSA) gains momentum, it has become necessary to refocus attention on effective and sustainable human resource development strategies for the construction sector in the region that include craft skills. Aims to provide insight into the availability and quality of construction craft skills in Zambia, and the SSA region in general.

Using Zambia as a country case study, results of a survey that was designed to assess the construction industry's perceptions of the quality and availability of construction craft skills in Zambia are presented. The surveyed contractors' support for the introduction of a sector‐specific training levy in Zambia was also investigated and is reported.

Findings point to both poor quality and shortage of construction craft skills in Zambia. Results suggest that construction sector‐specific training levy would be the most viable, sustainable and industry‐wide supported option for supplementing government funding in the training of construction craft skills in Zambia, and probably in the SSA region.

The survey was exploratory in nature and depth, and SSA is a vast and diverse region. The results of the case study may not correctly reflect construction skills exigencies across the whole SSA region.

The results provide information and advice for both policy makers and contractors concerned with construction crafts skills issues in Zambia, and SSA in general.

Multiskilling refers to a labour utilization strategy in which workers learn multiple skills in one or more trades outside of their primary trade. Over 700 non‐union craft workers across the USA were surveyed as part of a research effort. The data collected show that a slight increase in the breadth of skills positively impacts a worker’s hourly wage, but only a weak relationship was found between multiskilling and more continuous employment.

The occupational profile of the engineering industry has changed radically in recent years. Employment of craftsmen has declined in absolute and relative terms and is projected to continue to decrease in future. Technicians have increased in relative significance and their employment is forecast to remain stable. Trainees are crucial to the future supply of qualified personnel, but the cutback in trainees has outstripped the rate of employment loss. Time‐series models reveal that the length of the adjustment process which brings supply and demand back into balance given a shock to the system is approximately four years, consistent with the lags in training. Trends in manpower balances indicate that current net loss rates from stocks will have to be reduced if supply is to meet demand in the short and medium term. Hence the way in which skills shortages can and do occur in declining occupations is illustrated.

Human resource contributes significantly to the outcome of construction projects. In recent years, apprenticeship programs are being implemented to train young people to address shortage of skills workers and ageing workforce problem. This study aims to understand the factors influencing career decisions among apprentices in the construction sector.

A qualitative research approach was used to address the objectives of the study. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted to gain insights into the reason why young people decide to participate in construction craftsperson apprenticeship in Nigeria.

The study reveals that “interest and passion”, “role model”, “macroeconomic environment and government policies”, “spirit of entrepreneurship”, “formal, informal and non-formal education” and “family socioeconomic status” are the factors influencing career decisions among construction craftspeople.

The study provides fresh insights that can be used to develop strategies for attracting and increasing the number of young people that sign up for construction craftspeople apprenticeships. The apprentice training programmes are essential for addressing labour shortage, which is one of the factors affecting the performance of construction projects.

Occupational structure has changed significantly over time and further important changes are forecast by the year 1995. A substantial part of the change in occupational structure between 1971 and 1981 can be attributed to the shift in industrial structure. Despite the rising level of civilian employment in recent years, some, mainly blue‐collar occupations, continued to fall over the period 1981 to 1987. Others, however, showed significant growth (including professional, associate professional and managerial occupations), caused by both the changing occupational structure within industries and the changing industry mix. Such changes are likely to persist, bolstered by the continued expansion of the economy. The article reviews the possible extent of skill shortages in the nine main occupational groups. Shortages seem likely amongst managers and administrators, professional occupations and associate professional and technical occupations. They also appear to be persisting amongst craft and skilled manual workers despite declining levels of employment in this group. However, skill shortages seem much less likely amongst clerical and secretarial, personal and protective services, sales occupations, plant and machine operatives and other occupations.

British firms attach more weight to “hands on” experience than to formal qualifications. They manage to cope with lower proportions of skilled labour than those required by corresponding German firms, without lowering quality of output, mainly by optimising the allocation of their limited stocks of skill between various tasks. They concentrate on retraining labour which is already skilled, whereas German employers offer more apprentice training and wider retraining opportunities. In response to falling numbers of school‐leavers, British employers use skilled females, whereas German firms are recruiting extra skilled manual labour from East Germany and Romania. As a result of greater certification, German firms have to deal with trade union pressure for linkages between pay and qualifications, even when these are not really required for the job. They also face stronger opposition from trade unions to shift‐work, and enjoy fewer Government training subsidies than British firms. Younger British workers are beginning to acquire qualifications, but it will be many years before Britain′s stock of examined skills approaches that of Germany.

Purpose: Preserving a country’s culture is crucial for its sustainability. Handicraft is a key draw for tourism destinations; it protects any civilisation’s indigenous knowledge and culture by managing the historical, economic, and ecological ecosystems and perfectly aligns with sustainable development. It has a significant role in creating employment, especially in rural regions and is an essential contributor to the export economy, mainly in developing nations. The study focuses on the skills required and existing gaps in the handicraft industry, its development and prospects by considering women and their role in preserving and embodying the traditional art of making handicrafts.

Approach: A framework has been developed for mapping and analysing the skills required in the handicraft sector using econometric modelling; an enormous number of skills have been crowdsourced from the respondents, and machine learning techniques have been used.

Findings: The findings of the study revealed that employment in this area is dependent not only on general or specialised skills but also on complex matrix skills ranging from punctuality to working in unclean and unsafe environments, along with a set of personal qualities, such as taking initiatives and specific skills, for example polishing and colour coding.

Implications: The skills mapping technique utilised in this study is applicable globally, particularly for women indulged in casual work in developing nations’ handicrafts industry. The sustainable development goals, tourism, and handicrafts are all interconnected. The research includes understanding skills mapping, which provides insights into efficient job matching by incorporating preferences and studying the demand side of casual working by women in the handicraft sector from a skills perspective.