An ongoing skills crisis, an uncertain political and economic environment and some of the slimmest margins on record. These are the big factors influencing the financial operation of contractors this year and in turn the financial futures of those they employ.

Earlier this year, Building’s latest Top 150 contractors and housebuilders survey revealed that average margins across the top 10 contractors had been squeezed to just 0.38%.

Unsurprisingly, with contractors feeling the crunch, wage growth for contracting professionals has remained more or less flat, albeit still outstripping the national average.

The precarious position of contractors was perhaps best highlighted at the very start of this year when it all came undone for construction behemoth Carillion, which went crashing out of existence in spectacular fashion. 

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