Building workers seeking jobs via a construction recruitment agency might have felt a little gloomy about prospects for the sector amid all the recent warnings of an impending recession in 2023, but it seems the situation is not as bad as it might seem.

On the face of it, few things shout “recession” more than a company going bust, so the recent news that Gateshead-based Tolent Construction had gone into administration with 313 redundancies will not have been well received. 

However, it was not as if Tolent did not have a pipeline of work to be done, leaving customers looking to bring in new contractors. That has actually helped save a number of jobs. 

Among the firms stepping in is Brims Construction, which has taken on 150 Tolent Staff working on projects on Teesside. This was a particularly interesting case as the founders of Brims and many of its staff had worked at Tolent before setting up their own firm.  Indeed, two of the Brims founders, Jason Wood and Richard Wood, are sons of Tolent founder John Wood.

Describing Tolent as “very close to our hearts”, Richard said: “Its unfortunate demise has provided an opportunity for the future expansion of Brims and at the same time, we are hopeful of providing secure employment for up to 150 employees moving forward.” This represents a significant expansion for a firm whose previous headcount was 90.

The other firm taking on Tolent staff is RE:GEN Group, which has moved ahead with plans to relocate its head office to Sunderland and is taking on 33 former Tolent workers. Nine of these are new roles and 24 are involved in RE:GEN Solutions, a new subsidiary dealing with asbestos issues.

So while Tolent’s demise may be bad news, the fact remains that there is still a great deal of construction work out there, ensuring there will be plenty of jobs for available staff.