JOBS bloodletting in the housebuilding industry continued yesterday when Kier Group said it was axing 350 staff, with an unspecified number going in Scotland.
The jobs going in the residential division, along with four of its five offices closing – in Glasgow, and three sites in England – account for 60 per cent of Kier's current workforce of 625.
The company employs 115 people north of the Border but
would not say how many of these were being made redundant.
The construction, housebuilding and maintenance company said in a trading update that visitor levels and home reservations continued to fall during the second half.
"We are very cautious on the outlook for 2009 and consequently we are taking appropriate action to reduce our cost base," the company said in the statement.
Companies reliant on the health of the construction industry, from builders including Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey to plumbing equipment distributor Wolseley, have cut thousands of jobs in recent weeks.
Kier said its order book to end-June was down 45 per cent on the previous year and home completions for the year are down almost 19 per cent to 1,438 homes.
However, the company added that it continued to see little evidence of a slowdown in its other main markets of construction and support services, both of which continue to perform strongly and have record order books.
Full-year pre-tax profit would be in line with analysts' expectations, Kier added.
The full article contains 254 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
