Construction Labourer CV Examples & Writing Guide

This CV is for a labourer who started as a bricklayer's labourer, moved into soft strip and demolition and now works in a commercial main contractor's site team. The name and companies are made up. The numbers are the ones a site manager can check with one phone call: tonnes moved, skips loaded, metres of trench, hours on traffic marshalling, injuries, days missed.

Labourer CVs are read by a site manager, a foreman or a subcontractor's office manager, often on a phone. Big main contractors and labour agencies run them through an applicant tracking system first. Either way the reader asks four questions, in this order.

• Have you been on a real site? Naming the work (demolition, soft strip, trenching, concrete, labouring for bricklayers, clean-down) and the tools (breaker, plate compactor, skid steer, floor saw) proves it. "Assisted with various construction tasks" does not.
• Will you turn up? Early starts, long days, heat and rain, and a gang that cannot start without you. A driving licence, your own transport, and a line about attendance answer this before the phone call.
• Are you safe to have on site? A CSCS card, zero reportable injuries, and any traffic marshal, banksman or first aid training. Most major sites will not let you through the gate without a CSCS card.
• What can you run? A labourer who can run a skid steer, plate compactor, dumper or forklift with the right card, or who is trained as a traffic marshal, saves the foreman from hiring another person. List every machine you can operate without supervision.

“I read a labourer's CV for two things: can you turn up, and have you actually been on a site. Somebody who writes 'loaded twenty-yard skips, ran the plate compactor, trained traffic marshal' has been there. 'Hard worker, team player' is what people write when they have not.”

Most labourer CVs copy the job advert: "carried out general labouring, kept the site clean, assisted skilled trades". Every applicant did that. Add what you handled, how much, with which tool, and one thing the foreman can check, and the same duty becomes evidence. Six rewrites from real labouring work:

Group your skills the way a foreman thinks about the day: what work you can do, what you can run, what you know about safety. Ten to fifteen items is enough. Leave out "Microsoft Office" and "communication". "Physically fit, handles 25 kg bags all day" and "works in heat, cold and rain" belong on a labourer CV; they answer a real question.

• Site work: site set-up, clean-down and waste removal, materials handling and staging, loading and unloading lorries, trenching and backfill, level checking, silt fencing, clearing water, snow and ice.
• Demolition and soft strip: breakers, chipping hammer, demolition saw, cut-off saw, sledgehammer and crowbars, waste segregation and skip loading.
• Labouring for the trades: mixing and placing concrete, running a barrow or dumper, vibrating, mortar mixing and loading out blocks, carrying and cutting plasterboard and timber, setting up and striking formwork, fixing reinforcement, helping scaffolders under supervision.
• Plant: skid steer loader, plate compactor, trench rammer, forklift or telehandler, scissor or boom lift, mini excavator, forward tipping dumper, concrete mixer. Only list what you can run without someone standing next to you, and name the CPCS, NPORS or IPAF card.
• Traffic management: traffic marshal and banksman, Stop/Go board, cones and barriers, reading a traffic management plan.
• Safety: CSCS card, silica dust controls, excavation awareness, ladders and working at height, isolation and lock-off, COSHH, PPE.
• Other real skills: a driving licence and your own transport, a C1 or C licence if you have one, a second language (Polish, Romanian and others are common on UK sites), first aid.

The top of a labourer CV is two or three lines. If you have worked on a site, write a personal statement: years, the kind of work, the plant you run, your CSCS card, one number and your availability. If you have never worked in construction, write a one-line career objective that names the job, the company and what you bring (licence, transport, physical work history, CSCS card). Skip "seeking a challenging position"; nobody reads it.

Yes, you can get a construction job with no experience. Labourer is the entry job on almost every site, and gangs teach the work. What they cannot teach is turning up at 6 a.m., working 10 hours in the rain, lifting all day and doing what the foreman says without argument. Your CV has to prove those with whatever you have done so far.

1. 1Get a CSCS Green Labourer card before you apply. It usually needs the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test plus a one-day Level 1 health and safety award, and most major sites require the card at the gate. Put it in your contact line and your certifications.
2. 2Write a one-line career objective that names the job and the company, then your licence, transport and availability (early starts, weekends, working away). This is the whole first impression.
3. 3List every physical job you have had: warehouse, landscaping, removals, farm work, roofing labourer, fast food, the armed forces. Pull out the parts that look like construction: lifting and how much, shovelling and digging, running a forklift or mower, reading a tape, early shifts, working outside. One number per bullet.
4. 4Put your attendance record in writing: "missed 2 days in 18 months" or "no absences in the 2025 season". Foremen care about it more than anything else on the page.
5. 5Keep it to one page and register with construction labour agencies as well. Agencies fill many labouring jobs on big sites, and small builders still hire by word of mouth, so have printed copies ready.

There is no licence to work as a construction labourer in the UK. But a few cards are expected, some are required on most sites, and each one you hold makes you easier to place. List them with the year, newest first. Never list a card you do not have; it will be checked at site induction.

• CSCS Green Labourer card (Construction Skills Certification Scheme): the standard entry card, required by most major contractors. You usually need the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test and a Level 1 Award in Health and Safety in a Construction Environment. Card rules change, so check the CSCS website.
• Traffic marshal and banksman training: for guiding vehicles and plant on site. Work on the public road (Stop/Go boards, signing and coning) needs its own training, such as NRSWA Unit 2 for street works or a highways traffic management card; check the advert.
• Plant cards: CPCS or NPORS for dumpers, skid steers, rollers, telehandlers and excavators, IPAF for MEWPs (scissor and boom lifts) and PASMA for mobile towers. Write the scheme, category and year. A C1 or C licence is a real advantage if you can drive the tipper or tow the plant trailer.
• Specialist training when the job calls for it: asbestos awareness (UKATA) for demolition and refurbishment, confined spaces, CAT and Genny (cable avoidance) for excavation work, working at height, and the CCDO card that many demolition contractors expect.
• Applying in Ireland or the US? Irish sites need a Safe Pass card instead of CSCS. US sites ask for an OSHA 10 card, spell the job "laborer" and call the document a resume.

Most subcontractors are small companies. The person reading your CV is on a phone in a van, or has a printout on the bonnet. Large main contractors and labour agencies run CVs through an applicant tracking system before a person sees them. One plain page works for both, and it is what you hand over at the gate.

• One page, always. Ten years of labouring fits on one page when older jobs get one or two lines each.
• Order: contact line with licence, transport, CSCS card and availability; two-line personal statement or one-line career objective; skills; work history newest first with tools and numbers; cards and certificates; education.
• Standard headings, one column, normal font, no photo, no date of birth, no coloured boxes. Save as a PDF for online applications and bring printed copies to the agency or site.
• Mirror the advert's words once each: "construction labourer" or "general labourer", "demolition", "soft strip", "site clean-down", "materials handling", "trenching", "CSCS", "traffic marshal", and the plant they name. An ATS matches the exact words.
• The same job is "construction laborer" in the US and the document there is a resume. On a UK CV use the UK spelling and terms, and list UK cards; US cards such as OSHA 10 are not accepted in place of CSCS on UK sites.

Paste the advert into the cvplex ATS checker with your CV before applying online. It shows which trade words and plant names from the advert you are missing and whether your skills list was read as one.