Some 164,000 construction workers lost their jobs last year, according to figures from the Office of National Statistics.
However, the rate of job losses slowed during the last quarter, with 34,000 construction workers made redundant between September and December 2009 compared to 38,000 in the third quarter of last year.
At the peak of the recession, during the first quarter of 2009, 67,000 construction workers lost their jobs.
Construction accounted for a fifth of all UK redundancies last year.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk