ACTIVITY IN the Irish construction sector recorded its 50th consecutive monthly decline in July as new orders continued to fall and further layoffs were announced.

Construction also remains the worst hit sector in Northern Ireland.

The Ulster Bank construction purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which tracks changes in the Irish construction sector, rose to its highest level in three months, at 42.1, up from 40.5 in June.

However, it remains significantly below 50, the point which indicates a decline in activity.

“Business conditions remained extremely tough for Irish construction firms in July,” said Simon Barry, chief economist at Ulster Bank. “The Irish construction sector remains very much in job-shedding mode at present.”

However, he noted that that the marginal increase in the index indicated a slight easing of the pace of decline last month.

Housing activity showed its smallest decline since March, as did civil engineering, while the rate of decline in staffing levels was at its slowest pace in four years.

Moreover, commercial property was the only sector to record a sharper decline than in June.

Meanwhile, according to Ulster Bank’s PMI for Northern Ireland, which tracks private sector activity, the construction sector remains the worst hit by the slowdown.

However, the local retail and service sectors are also showing increasing indications of weakness.

Northern Ireland firms reported a modest fall in workforce numbers during July but overall business activity fell sharply for the 20th month in a row.

The North’s private sector showed signs of a marked drop in business activity in contrast to the rest of the United Kingdom where output growth was recorded across the economy as a whole.