2nd Quarter 2000 - Introductory Notes The second Federation of Master Builders quarterly state of trade survey in 2000 was supported by a little over 300 member firms. The aggregate annual turnover of these firms is estimated to be close to £175 million, and their total workforce is currently around 3,600. This workforce is divided roughly 1.75:1 between direct employees, including working proprietors and partners, and sub-contractors - a higher ratio than in the first quarter survey. Individual replies are weighted by size of firm. This was an innovation in the FMB survey at the start of 1999, so results of each survey are now directly comparable with those obtained a year earlier. For the time being, there is not a sufficient run of data on the revised basis to attempt to adjust the results for normal seasonal variations in building activity, but where changes from one survey to another are thought to be attributable to such variations, this is stated in the commentary. (It should be noted that in Tables 1, 4, 5, 7 and 9, that show separate results for the state of trade of firms in the different FMB regions, there are on this occasion no data for South Wales, as the number of returns from that region was insufficient to produce results of publishable quality.) Further Information For further information, please contact: Federation of Master Builders Gordon Fisher House 14-15 Great James Street Holborn London WC1N 3DP Tel: 020 7242 7583 Fax: 020 7404 0296 First posted: 15 September 2000. Last modified: 15 September 2000.