Some of the measures the previous Labour Government put in place, against the most Severe Global Financial Crisis the world has seen for at least a century, did to some extent mitigate the savage effects of unemployment.

Some 84,000 jobs have been lost in the construction industry, in part due to stopping the schools building programme, road schemes and social housing, which were all socially and economically necessary, because they boost productivity, efficiency and economic capability in the long term and, in the short term, in the worst and most Severe Global Financial Crisis ever, help to provide skills and capacity in the construction sector.