The suggestion that there has been an upturn in the amount of new builds being created has been criticised by the Federation of Master Builders.

Brian Berry, director of external affairs at the group said that there was a "fundamental problem" in that there were not enough houses being constructed to deal with the figure needed.

"The government has a target of about 240,000 new homes a year and even with these current projections you're going to get about half of that going forward," he said.

"We've got 4.5 million people on council house waiting lists so even with this small increase in housing stock completion, it goes no way to addressing the current need."

Earlier this month the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply suggested that there had been a "modest" increase in construction work.

However, there were falls in new orders and job losses in the industry continue to be heavy.

People who are multi-skilled and have taken courses on areas such as plumbing, bricklaying or plastering could find that they are less hard-hit by job losses.