You can’t build a house with a building inspector.
Building inspectors landed on LinkedIn’s 2026 Jobs on the Rise list as the fastest-growing construction role. Bricklayers and electricians are nowhere to be found.
That’s the equivalent of hiring ten quality control managers while your production line sits empty.
The UK construction sector faces over 140,000 unfilled vacancies. By 2032, you’ll need nearly 1 million additional workers. The people getting hired check the compliance paperwork. Not laying bricks.
The Regulatory Gold Rush
Building control salaries have exploded. Entry-level positions now pay up to £30,000. Senior professionals with a decade of experience command up to £70,000 annually.
That’s a 40% premium over what many experienced electricians earn.
When the Building Safety Regulator framework changed in April 2024, many professionals in their mid-to-late 50s chose early retirement over navigating new competency assessments. The market responded with historic pay increases.
The construction industry values knowledge work and compliance roles over manual expertise.
Planning and oversight capacity is outstripping the availability of skilled labor. You can have all the inspectors you want. Without bricklayers, nothing gets built.
The Trades Are Disappearing
40% of small to medium-sized construction firms struggle to hire bricklayers. Wages increased by over 10% in some areas. The gap persists.
An estimated 15,000 additional electricians are needed by 2025 to meet UK infrastructure goals. In London, more than 10% of residents have waited over a year for a handyman or electrician. Fewer than 5% can secure roofers. Just 3% can access bricklayers within a month.
The apprenticeship pipeline is broken. Property maintenance specialists face almost 80 jobs for every single apprentice completer. The completion rate sits at 16%.
Plant operators face a 73:1 deficit. Less than half of apprenticeship starts complete their training.
Carpentry faces a 20:1 gap, with starts down nearly a third. Bricklaying has seen the sharpest fall in new entrants since 2021, down 42%.
35% of construction workers are over 50. Only 20% are under 30.
AI Won’t Lay Your Bricks
Nearly 70% of project managers and quantity surveyors anticipate significant value from AI. The use of AI in construction projects jumped from 15% to 75% in two years.
AI can optimize project timelines. It can predict cost overruns. It can identify structural issues before they become problems.
It can’t swing a hammer.
You’re automating the planning while the execution sits understaffed.
Planning, project management, and quantity surveying functions are getting smarter. The physical work that constructs buildings remains manual, labor-intensive, and understaffed.
The Government’s £600 Million Bet
Britain announced a £600 million investment to train 60,000 bricklayers, electricians, engineers, and carpenters by 2029 to support the plan to build 1.5 million homes.
“None of this is possible without the engineers, brickies, sparkies, and chippies to actually get the work done, which we are facing a massive shortage of.”
It recognizes the problem. Whether it solves it depends on execution.
You need nearly 1 million workers by 2032. The math doesn’t work unless you accelerate both training and retention.
The apprenticeship completion rates suggest retention is the bigger problem. If only 16% of property maintenance apprentices complete their training, you’re pouring water into a bucket with a hole in it.
What This Means for You
If you’re a building inspector, your salary prospects look excellent. Your job security is solid. The regulatory environment ensures demand will only increase.
If you’re a project manager or quantity surveyor, the industry values your expertise. AI will make you more efficient, not obsolete.
If you’re a bricklayer, electrician, or carpenter, you have leverage. The supply-demand imbalance works in your favor. Wages are rising. Firms are desperate for skilled trades.
If you’re trying to build something, you face a different reality. You can secure planning approval. You can hire inspectors. You can deploy AI for project management.
Finding someone to actually build your project is the bottleneck.
The Structural Problem
The fastest-growing roles are regulatory and technical. The most critical shortages are in manual trades. The top is expanding with inspectors, managers, and AI-enabled planners, while the bottom shrinks as experienced tradespeople retire and apprenticeship pipelines fail.
The bottleneck sits in the middle—where the actual work happens.
Building control officers earn more than many electricians. The work is less physically demanding. The career progression is clearer. But you can’t inspect a building that hasn’t been built.
Higher wages for trades help. The government’s £600 million training investment helps. Fixing apprenticeship completion rates would help more.
Prioritizing regulatory hiring over trade recruitment won’t help. You need both. Right now, you’re getting one.
The Reality Check
The absence of bricklayers and electricians from LinkedIn’s growth list doesn’t reflect low demand. It reflects a shrinking workforce in roles the industry desperately needs.
The UK has ambitious housing goals. Infrastructure projects are piling up. The workforce to deliver them is aging out faster than new workers are coming in.
You’re getting more inspectors while losing the tradespeople who actually build.
No amount of AI or regulatory reform can solve that. Technology can optimize planning. Compliance frameworks can minimize risk. But someone still has to lay the bricks, pull the wires, and frame the walls.
The construction industry isn’t just hiring the wrong people. It’s building a future where oversight outnumbers execution—where you have the capacity to approve projects but not the labor to complete them.
Fix the apprenticeship completion rates. Make trades careers financially competitive. Invest in retention, not just recruitment.
Or keep hiring inspectors to oversee projects that never get built.