The skills of those on electrician courses could soon be required on building sites across the country.

This is because, according to the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (Ucatt), the rate of decline in the building industry has slowed down.

As a result, the organisation hopes that the UK is now seeing the recovery of the industry and while work levels are still lower than normal, "it does seem to have bottomed out".

Part of the reason for the increase could be the infrastructure work that is being done for the government, a spokesperson for Ucatt explained.

He added: "Obviously, with all that work there are fairly long lead-in times and we haven't seen the full value of that yet."

At the beginning of the month, the Office for National Statistics revealed that new construction orders for private housing reached £423 million in May 2009.

This was down from last year, when the figure stood at £791 million.

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