Good news for tradies leading up to Christmas

The end of the year can often be a quiet period for those in trades or construction. People go on holiday, and they aren't really that worried about their projects until business starts up again the next year.

This can mean a long slowdown in December, and a drawn out start in January, or even February. Fortunately, recent research shows that construction activity is anticipated to increase over the December quarter.

This is not just good news for builders, but also for sparkies, sheet metal workers, office outfitters, and others.

Who is fairing well in the construction world?

The data released in the ANZ/Property Council Survey shows overall anticipation of construction activity increased across the country, and five of the eight states and territories posted increases in confidence in the sector.

According to the survey there has been a remarkable uptick in expected activity in all areas of residential and commercial construction.

For those working on retirement homes or complexes, you'd better dust off your overalls, pick up a ladder and let the boss know you're on your way. Retirement living construction has the highest expected activity across all construction, and has even overtaken residential building for the first time in over a year.

Retirement living also had the sharpest increase in sentiment. Other areas of construction that had a steep rise this quarter are offices and retail. Better get a hard hat and hire a scissor lift, because if you work in office or retail fitouts, it seems you'll have a busy time ahead.

If you're wondering how the various sectors fair this year compared to the December quarter in 2013, retirement living, unsurprisingly, posted the highest shift in sentiment with a 20.2 point gain on the index, followed by retail at 11.4 and hotels at 8.3.

At 3.2 residential construction has recovered from a dip earlier in the year. Industrial construction lags behind at 1.9 points, and office construction is the only negative figure at -0.5 points.