For more than 30 years, the State of Trade Survey has monitored key indicators and predicted future short-term developments for micro and SME building firms.

It has now been refreshed for 2025 and will be released every six months to measure the state of the industry. The survey is commissioned by the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB).

It is the only survey of its kind to focus exclusively on small and medium-sized (SME) firms throughout the construction sector. The report looks at activity from January to June 2025, referred to in this report as H1. It casts ahead to July to December 2025.

Key Indicators from the report include:

Construction Industry Outlook
In the first half of 2025, all of the key performance indicators (workload, employment, and enquiries) showed marked improvement across the construction industry. For the first time since Q2 2023, all three indicators show growth, signalling an upturn within the industry.

Workload
Respondents reported a net workload increase of +25% in both first half of 2025 (H1). This represents a substantial change in trajectory from -11% in Q4 2024. The current level is comparable to H1 2022, which marked the initial recovery period after the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Employment
Employment has also rebounded, with a net change of +26%, another significant change in direction from -8% in Q4 2024. Apart from a brief uptick in Q2 2023, employment has been in decline since Q4 2022 but has now seen the strongest quarterly improvement in employment since Q1 2010.

Enquiries
The industry saw a net increase of +34% in new enquiries, another substantial change from -23% in Q4 2024. This positive trend is comparable to the growth seen in late 2021 and early 2022 as the sector emerged from COVID-19 disruptions.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded below.