The number of new construction jobs may be halved this year, but the industry will continue to need new recruits, executives of the Careers in Construction job board told a London audience last night.

“The industry is still growing - even in challenging times; there are still opportunities,” said Neil Campbell, head of digital sales - recruitment for the job board’s owner, Emap Communications. According to the construction industry skills council ConstructionSkills, 42,000 new recruits will be required this year, instead of the 88,000 originally forecast.

“You can never have enough good people,” said Simon Middelboe, chief executive of Emap Inform, the publishing conglomerate’s magazine business and recruitment arm. “If you’ve got 10 brilliant people, you can always have 11. I think we sometimes forget that.”

Experience of previous downturns will be a critical differentiator in success or failure during the current season of challenging economic times, Middelboe said: “It’s pretty miserable what the industry is going through at the moment but it doesn’t matter how bad it is, there are always winners and losers.”