In news that that will already be obvious to thousands, workloads in the construction industry across the island of Ireland decreased further last month and firms also cut jobs in the sector.

These losses have now been recorded throughout the industry with construction activity continuing to decline during April as new business decreased further with building firms continuing to shed jobs.

The latest Ulster Bank Construction Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) showed that the seasonally adjusted index designed to track changes in total construction activity fell for the second month running to 43.7 in April from 46.1 in March with a figure above 50 denoting growth.

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In fact, activity at construction firms in Ireland has now decreased in each of the past forty-seven months.

Each of the three monitored sub-sectors posted a fall in activity, led by civil engineering, which saw its steepest fall since December 2010.

Housing activity fell at a much faster pace than in the previous month. The commercial sector saw the slowest reduction in eight months.

The survey shows that input prices rose sharply again in April, extending the current rise of inflation to one year.

The rate of increase was the sharpest since July 2008 and was blamed on higher prices for oil and raw materials.

See: Construction Losses Push Unemployment Up

(BMcC/GK)