London boom spells jobs for ex-convicts

[LONDON] Lorenzo Dorsett, a former Arsenal Football Club youth team soccer player, spent more than three years in prison for drug possession. Today he works as a painter and decorator in London, where a building boom is creating jobs that benefit more than just the economy.

"I've worked consistently since I finished" a training programme for current and former inmates, said Dorsett, 34. Before jail, "the only career path was football and when that stopped, I didn't know what else to do", he said.

Engineers, bricklayers and painters like Dorsett are finding eager employers in London as office and residential construction soars to levels not seen since before the financial crisis. That's making life easier for workers with blemished resumes including ex-convicts trying to swap prison uniforms for workers' overalls.