Research claims 5,000 construction firms have gone bust in two year period

However the figures show a slight easing in the pressure on the industry, with 15.5% fewer construction insolvencies over the second quarter of 2012 compared to the previous quarter.

The retail industry was the worst hit in the second quarter of this year according to PwC, with 426 insolvencies compared to 386 during the same period last year. Insolvencies over all sectors were 11% down on the first quarter of the year, with 3,927 since April compared to 4,406 at the start of the year; and 3% down on the number of insolvencies during the same period in 2011.

The analysts named manufacturing, hospitality and leisure and real estate as sectors showing a particularly high number of insolvencies over the second quarter.

"There has been a clear reduction in the incidence of insolvencies over the current recession compared to previous ones," Mike Jervis of PwC said. "Retail is the sector which keeps bucking this trend. Other sectors which were showing this trend, such as construction and hospitality and leisure, have had fewer insolvencies during the second quarter of 2012 than the same period last year."

London continues to have the highest number of insolvencies overall according to the figures. There were 887 insolvencies across all sectors in the second quarter of the year, however this represented a 9% fall against the same quarter last year. However the North East and Cumbria had the biggest increase, with 277 compared with 163 in the same quarter of 2011. The region has, according to the figures, seen a 68% increase in insolvencies since the start of 2012.

The figures back up analysis of the number of firms issuing profit warnings since the start of the credit crisis in 2008, carried out by Ernst and Young earlier this month. The analysts said that large construction firms had issued the highest number of profit warnings against a backdrop of falling profit warnings generally, saying that construction companies had been "affected by the most substantial economic and structural difficulties" as a result of changing spending patterns and turbulence in the eurozone.