A new University of Auckland project, kickstarted by the Government, will help buoy the building industry, Blair says. Commercial construction leaders have welcomed a new project in Auckland which will create up to 750 jobs over the next few years. Paul Blair, chief executive of Infrastructure NZ and a member of the Construction Sector Accord, said the building would be a confidence booster for the ‘’vertical’’ building sector, which is usually the first part of the construction industry to suffer in economic downturns. ‘’It’s a big ecosystem, you need your horizontal stuff, your vertical stuff, residential stuff, and everyone needs to get a bit of a piece. Westpac’s gloomiest prediction for the construction sector is that 20,000 job are at risk because of projects not going ahead following Covid-19.

Source: Stuff August 17, 2020 10:28 UTC