There was a lot of concern about raising interest rates and the housing market collapsing. So a lot of builders stopped new home starts. Numbers are still a bit down. Most trades that aren't as focused on the new builds market are short on labor. There's still plenty of jobs in general in construction.

I think there's a short to medium term outlook where parts of the trades sector are very much boom and bust, and then a longer term one where we aren't training enough people to replace an aging workforce overall.

I know here in canada if you are a newest machinist on the crew be ready to get dumped in about a year, happened three times since covid and I can't fault my bosses for not trying to keep me around but I've just been using the lay offs to get the school side of the apprenticeship stuff done, might try a different trade once I'm done with school

Building has always been a bit boom and bust, whereas other trades have a strong service base to keep things ticking over.

Plumbing and electrical are some of the best, in that regard.