SYDNEY, Australia — While travel, tourism and hospitality have fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic, construction continues as the industry is deemed too important to the economy to be shutdown. But measures such as social distancing and staggered shifts and break times have increased costs and lowered productivity as companies seek to keep projects on schedule. Denita Wawn, the chief executive of Master Builders Australia, said closing construction sites would threaten thousands of jobs and small businesses. …Ms Wawn said the vast majority of construction workers were younger people without other qualifications “and unlike others in the community they can’t be expected to work from home”. …“Social distancing on sites is slowing work but the industry and government agree that slower work is better than no work,” Ms Wawn said.