<b></b><p></p><p>For all the talk of how well the housebuilding industry is faring, the fact is that for the industry's employees this is a worrying time. Maybe not for the brickies and plasterers, whose work continues unabated, but certainly for the support staff, managers, design teams, planners and sales staff in regional and head offices throughout the country. </p><p>A conservative estimate finds that 2,000 housebuilding jobs have been lost so far this year, starting with the Wimpey/McLean integration and then at Persimmon/ Beazer, Taywood/Bryant and Wilcon/Wain. </p><p>The City tends to view these job loss figures with glee, seeing them as confirmation that a company is &amp;"streamlining&amp;" and exploiting the &amp;"synergies&amp;" of the takeovers. It is somewhat galling that while the industry is under pressure to improve quality and customer service, the stock market is only bothered about cost savings, office closures and boosting margins. </p><p>This may be the nature of capitalism, a fact of life which all publicly listed firms have to cope with, but it shines a favourable light on the private firms whose success is more likely to be judged on the quality of their product. </p><p>These private firms are now picking up experienced and talented staff discarded from …