| dc.description.abstract | Due to a prolonged lifespan and a reduced fertility rate, construction productivity has been in decline for more than a decade. A precarious situation is the greying of construction workforce. In one aspect, an aged worker often reflects his responsive experience and responsible attitude; on the other, the future of construction is doomed without the replenishment of fresh force into the industry. The aim of this work is to investigate the ageing phenomenon of four critical specialty trades in construction, namely: formwork, rebar work, concrete plastering, and electrical work. For the four trades, this work will analyze their work ability index, and compare with that in other industries. This work also discusses potent factors which dictate construction work ability. This work begins with a series of interviews with specialty subcontractors. The insights acquired from the interviews are organized and structured into a questionnaire which is adopted for a large-scale industry survey. A total of 161 specialty workers returned the questionnaire. The result of the survey shows that the average work ability index is 39.1; the grading of specialty worker’s job performance is weak (32%), average (53%), good (10%) and extraordinary (5%). It is also found that potent factors affecting job performance include demography, health, and job characteristics. This work also suggests that reducing malign factors surrounding job environment and the provision of job-assisting tools would effectively increase job productivity. | en_US |