THE BUILDING INDUSTRY In spite of the fact that, until comparatively recent times, the various building trades were only very loosely bound together, the relations between them being relatively casual and more a matter of tradition than of definite organization, it has never been a very difficult matter to assess the dimensions of these occupa tions, since they were by tradition largely compacted in several well-defined and readily understood trade groups. In modern times there has been a steady extension of the number of occupa tions having some connection with building work, many of them being engaged in the manufacture of fittings, equipment and materials of a kind not previously used, or only used to a slight extent in such work. It has thus become extremely difficult for statistical purposes to set exact occupational and industrial limits to this industry.
The term building industry, however, may be correctly used to include all those occupations, industrial and professional, which are entirely or mainly occupied in building work, excluding those which are concerned only in part in supplying some product used in building, e.g., the production of cast-iron goods and ironmon gery. The main trades usually included in it as well as the number of persons occupied may be judged from the following list of in sured persons engaged in the building trades in England and Wales in July 1927. Carpenters, 134,450; bricklayers, 75,760; masons, 24,560; slaters, 6,130; plasterers, 22,130; painters, 114,610; plumbers, 34,220; labourers to the above 265,020; all other oc cupations, 170,980; total, 847,860.
Owing to the widespread demand for the services of the build ing industry, the occupations comprised therein are distributed with remarkable uniformity over the whole country; hence the in dustry is not subject to those striking concentrations which may be observed in other industries.
Training of Personnel.—The problem of most obvious im port both to this industry as a whole and to each of the separate trades involved in it is the training and selection of personnel. Pronouncements on these problems were made in Great Britain by the National Industrial Council and also by the National House Building Committee at a later date (1924), dealing, how ever, chiefly with the question of the selection and training of apprentices. These and similar discussions have resulted in a clearer understanding of the nature of these problems and of the relative merits of various solutions which have been propounded. The most stable scheme so far established is probably that ini tiated in connection with the painting and decorating trade. This is organized by a national joint education committee and aims at the encouragement of a better standard of craftsmanship by means of competitions, the improvement of craft education, and the establishment of properly considered apprenticeship conditions. Other national schemes of apprenticeship have been set in motion in the plumbing trade, in the plastering trade, and in the heating and ventilating trade. Local apprenticeship schemes have been established in a number of centres, all involving co-operation with the education authorities in the provision of suitable technical education.
The steady growth in the size of individual building firms, which has accompanied the initiation of large-scale building proj ects and has been the result of a desire to benefit by the economy of large-scale business methods, has created a demand for a higher type of employee who shall be capable of dealing with the larger problems of organization and control in large contracting businesses. Increasing attention is being given to this problem by technical institutions. The Institute of Builders, which has been reorganized so as to be able to deal with all matters affecting the general improvement of the building industry as a whole, has con sidered, among other proposals, the establishment of degree courses in building at one or more of the universities. Such courses would deal with those larger problems arising in connection with the work of the industry, and would help to raise the general level of technical knowledge and ability in the industry. Similar efforts are being made in other countries.
In New York joint boards have recently been established which include in their constitution all parties likely to be interested in the methods of improving building practice, such as architects, owners, employers and employees in the building trades, and the local authority. These bodies deal with apprenticeship, craftsman ship, safety, co-operation between the trades, and the regulation of seasonal demands for building work. The work of the Federal Board for Vocational Education may also be referred to in this connection. (F. E. D.; J. L. M.)