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NEW DATA FROM Ulster Bank has shown signs of growth in the construction industry.
The statistics, taken from the Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), show a second quarterly increase this year.
According to the Index, which is designed to track construction activity broadly, there was a rise from 52.9 in March to 57.2 in April.
This most recent rise means that there has been an increase in the sector for 20 consecutive months.
Boosts across the sector
Speaking about the survey, Simon Barry, chief economist for the Republic of Ireland at Ulster Bank, said, “encouragingly, the improvement reported by survey respondents last month was broadly-based. That is, the pace of activity growth accelerated across each of the three major sub-sectors.”
Particular improvement was reported in the Commercial and Housing arenas where growth picked up rapidly, while Civil Engineering returned to slight expansion following two months in a row of contraction.
The increases in the sector also brought good news for the Irish jobs sector.
The most recent index figures showed April to have had the biggest boost in staff number across the industry since January.
Developments in the industry have brought good news for subcontractors, although bad news for people looking to hire them.
Increased demand has brought a jump in prices being charged, despite what Ulster Bank is calling “a further modest deterioration in the quality of their work”.
Difficulty north of the border
While things are getting moving construction-wise south of the border, economically things are looking less cheerful in Northern Ireland.
Ulster Bank’s PMI results have also shown that there has been a modest deterioration in business conditions across the region.
Output and new orders for firms were seen to have fallen during the month of March, although staffing continued to increase.
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Psycho!!!
@Johnsinker: who? You? Was it an accidental shot? Why hit the post? Do you always jump to conclusions based on no evidence? Didn’t school teach you anything?
@Caoimhín O Neill: Evidence of Multiple rounds hitting the South Korean post, would point to aimed intentional fire from the North Korean side. Added to that are all the previous incidents of attacks on the South by North Korean Forces since 1952. And taking into account that North Korea is still in a State of War with South Korea, it would be a logical and rational point to argue that this was a hostile act by North Korea.
@Mick.: what has that to do with phycho? Southern hostile acts are just as frequent
@Johnsinker: Groupie! Cocaine! Crazy!…
@Caoimhín O Neill: ah give over. Looking for an argument everywhere.
@Sid: do you agree with the original comment fishing for likes? Or do you think it should be challenged?
@Caoimhín O Neill: Actually the South Koreans have not acted aggressively to North Korea since the early 60′s. In fact they have been immensely tolerant of North Korean attacks since.
Only in the last decade there has been 18 separate attacks on South Korea by the North.
@Mick.: Apparently Poland invaded Germany to start the second world war, and the vietnamese fired on USS Maddox to start the US involvement in Vietnam .British soldiers were shot at , causing the events of Bloody Sunday.
Back with a bang……good man Kim!
The evil of communism, hundreds of millions dead since the infamous October revolution,God will be their judge
@Jimmy Carroll: he’d want to hurry on.
@Jimmy Carroll: those numbers are cold war propaganda. They have no substance. Both China and USSR had population growth that would be impossible if the deaths that the USA claimed occurred had actually occurred. I used to also believe that too but when I looked for the primary sources I got to American newspapers.
To be fair after the reported death of Kim Jung un and previous satirical stories from Hong Kong becoming fact in mainstream media , you have to be sceptical about any reporting from there.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/kim-jong-un-uncle-fed-to-120-dogs-story-begun-by-chinese-satirist-9042072.html
They were probably sending each other memes and one from the South was too close to the bone.
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