Workers in the $12 billion building and construction sector are facing the toughest times in almost two decades but a rebound is being picked soon.

Figures from Statistics New Zealand show the severity of the downturn for this sector, which has crashed to new record lows. Latest building consent data for January, the weakest in 17 years, showed just 17,525 residential buildings got consent in the year to January, down from 30,000 in 2005.

The 49,331 workers in the building business have enjoyed 7.5 per cent growth rates since 2003 but now big job cuts, reduced hours and pitiful demand looms large.

But some people believe a change is imminent.

Graham Darlow, Fletcher Construction's engineering division general manager, said his firm would be watching the results from the Jobs Summit keenly and expecting changes.

"We're waiting to hear more on the Government's stimulus package, particularly for infrastructure, which we believe will provide further employment both on major national and regional projects."

BIS Shrapnel senior project manager Adeline Wong also expects the building sector to rebound soon because of strengthening economic growth, low interest rates, better home affordability, pent-up demand for apartments and houses, higher net overseas migration levels and a growing deficiency of housing stock.

The civil engineering sector would also provide a buffer to the construction sector, she said, due to increased spending on infrastructure amounting to about $5.8 billion in the next five years. That would result in the civil engineering sector expanding by more than 10 per cent a year during the two years to 2010/11, she predicted.

Brian Dackers, chairman of property consultants Rider Levett Bucknall, which issues an international construction survey, said Government and infrastructure might well save the day for the sector by providing some consistent workflow.

Some property development projects have stopped midway and others have been shelved as funding dries up. Cranes, harbingers of economic growth, have almost vanished from Auckland's CBD skyline.

Buyers have yet to materialise for the ghost-town-like $500 million Kensington Park at Orewa, despite Colliers International's prominent global marketing campaign. Mortgagee sale signs are springing up on blocks of land which developers are being forced to quit.