JOBS START ON

IF YOU’RE looking to kickstart your career in the trades, Manchester might be the place to start. The city was named as one of the top 20 places to build a career as a tradesman, including electricians, plumbers and construction workers. According to a report from by Ironmongery Direct – who supply architectural ironmongery – Manchester was ranked number 10 out of cities in the UK, with 3,837 jobs reportedly available at present.

The jobs report was created from Ironmongery Direct’ s new tool, which lets you explore the best locations based on local trade company competition, advertising costs, startup survival rate, among others. So, if your dream is to build your own UK construction company, or if you’re a carpenter who’d like to up sticks and move elsewhere, you know where to head to first.

Manchester was listed as having 3,837 jobs available, compared to the winning 11,375 jobs in Brighton. The report also took into consideration the number of training courses available in each city, with Manchester offering 23.

Further analysis was given to the number of hardware stores (for all-important supplies) and the amount of competition from similar companies. Manchester came out in third place with regards to its 840 hardware stores.

While different trades might be better off in different cities, it was Brighton that scored best overall. The seaside town is thought to be the best bet for builders, carpenters, and gardeners. Meanwhile, job availability was quite high across the board, and startups tended to survive for more than a year.

In second place was Chester, which is the best option for plumbers. With high startup survival rates, low advertising costs, and a significant number of jobs per capita, Chester is a good choice if you prefer the north. Leicester came in third overall and best for gardeners. The city had few competing companies and high start-up survival rate – all in all making it prime turf for new gardening companies. For electricians, Coventry came out on top because of its high number of jobs available in the area and low advertising costs In contrast to trade-topping Brighton, England’s capital ranked just 14th overall on the list of 20. London scored most highly for construction workers, where it placed 7th due to its high number of courses available and access to a significant number of hardware stores.

Electricians wouldn’t fare quite as well in London, however. The capital only placed 17th for that trade because of its high advertising costs and low number of jobs available per capita.

“It’s surprising to see the difference across industries,” explained Wayne Lysaght-Mason, managing director at Ironmongery Direct .“The city ranking is significantly different between plumbers and builders, for example. But it looks like Brighton could always use more tradesmen!”

Perhaps it’s time to relocate...

Manchester has 3,837 jobs available. The report also took into consideration training courses, hardware stores, and more Ironmongery Direct