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Discover How the Paulista Industry Faces the Labor Shortage and What FIESP and SENAI-SP Propose to Reverse This Challenging Scenario.
The Brazilian industry, particularly in São Paulo, has been facing a growing dilemma: the shortage of qualified labor. After all, why are there not enough workers for such a vital sector of the economy? To understand this phenomenon and seek solutions, the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (FIESP) and the National Service for Industrial Training (SENAI-SP)1 launched comprehensive research on the job market in São Paulo. The aim is to understand the reasons for the shortage from both the worker’s and employer’s perspectives, as well as to identify ways to reverse this complex situation.
The president of FIESP, Josué Gomes da Silva, emphasized the importance of the data during the event “The Force that Moves the Industry,” held on May 27 and streamed on the FIESP YouTube channel. He also drew attention to the inhospitable environment that the productive sector faces. Josué criticized the increase in taxes and high interest rates, which, according to him, harm the entire economy. He advocated for increased productivity as the main solution to mitigate the labor shortage. “Productivity comes from quality education and more investment in capital goods,” stated Josué.
The New Profile of the Worker and the Challenge of the Paulista Industry
The quantitative and qualitative research was commissioned by FIESP and SENAI-SP to the Locomotiva Institute. They aim to understand how Paulista workers think, what they desire, and what barriers keep them away from the industry. Why has the traditional job model, with a signed work card, ceased to be attractive to this audience?
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One of the surveys by FIESP among its industrial base revealed that 77.1% of companies have faced difficulties hiring labor. The research aimed to identify the main obstacles to hiring, whether the size of the company influences this decision, which age group faces the greatest hiring challenges, and which areas have the highest need for labor.
Entrepreneurship vs. Formal Work: A Paradigm Shift
The first panel of the event highlighted the new profile of the worker. In the context of a heated job market, with an unemployment rate of just 6.2% in the state of São Paulo and the highest level of employment since 2012, attracting qualified labor has become a significant challenge for the industry.
Today, the industrial sector is the choice of only 11% of workers, compared to 24% in the previous generation, according to the research by FIESP and SENAI-SP. During this period, self-employment has emerged as the aspiration of the majority, with 58% of respondents expressing this desire, compared to 45% of their parents’ generation. The data compiled by the Locomotiva Institute demonstrates the growing appeal of entrepreneurship.
The Locomotiva interviewed 1,503 men and women aged 18 to 29 who are part of the workforce in April. Additionally, the qualitative research heard from 24 former students of SENAI-SP, divided between those who remain in the industry, those who migrated to other formal areas, and those now working independently.
Job Satisfaction and the Young Person’s Perception of the Industry
Only 27% of Paulista workers are fully satisfied with their work overall. This is the same percentage of satisfaction among industrial workers, which is, in turn, the highest in the private sector. Following are 23% in construction, 21% in services, and 11% in commerce. Among self-employed workers, the satisfaction rate reaches 41%, and among public servants, 47%.
The survey indicates that formal work has lost strength as a promise of stability and growth. Meanwhile, interest, especially among younger people, in alternatives that offer more autonomy, flexibility, and potential income is increasing. According to the survey, 67% agree with the statement “I believe that having a signed work card no longer guarantees stability and security for the future”. Furthermore, 64% of respondents agree with the statement “formal work offers little flexibility for balancing personal and professional life”.
Flexibility and Income: What Drives New Generations Away from the Industry?
Renato Meirelles, president of the Locomotiva Institute, emphasized in his presentation that the survey invites us to look at the world of work from people’s perspectives. He pointed out that the lack of labor is not limited to the industry but is present in various sectors of the economy, such as retail, services, and technology, highlighting a general challenge.
The possibility of having more flexibility and generating income more quickly are the reasons that lead the new generation to prefer to undertake rather than work in the industry. The industry is perceived by young people as a more rigid environment with less attractive pay. New occupations, such as app drivers and delivery workers, are valued by youth, who reject the CLT model. This view is reinforced by digital influencers, who showcase only the advantages of new forms of work and associate the traditional model with greater difficulty in social mobility and lower quality of life.
“Work has ceased to be synonymous with employment. The security that formal work with a signed work card brings also creates a constraint that makes the worker feel trapped, with little flexibility to balance personal and professional life,” analyzed Meirelles. Although the research shows high satisfaction among those who work independently (41%), it also reveals high dissatisfaction among freelancers, with 27% of respondents expressing dissatisfaction. In the industry, the dissatisfied represent only 6%. One conclusion of the research is that, despite the many positives of the industry, such as security and growth opportunities, the sector needs to seek strategies to change young people’s perceptions of industrial careers.
The Business Perspective: Hiring Challenges in the Paulista Industry
From the perspective of business owners, the Survey on the Paths of the Paulista Industry: Labor Market, conducted by the FIESP Economics Department, indicates that 77.1% of the 87.3% of Paulista industrialists who sought to hire new employees between early 2024 and March 2025 faced difficulties in the process.
Professor Rodrigo Soares, chair of Economics at the Fundação Lemann chair at Insper, assessed that social programs and the aging population are not the primary causes of the labor shortage. “The low unemployment and higher salaries constitute this scenario at the peak of the economic cycle, which is the difficulty in hiring,” said Soares. He adds that there are other structural factors, such as education. “The workforce has improved over the last 30 years, and qualified labor is becoming scarce.” The main age group facing hiring difficulties for the industries is 21 to 30 years old (61%), followed by 31 to 40 years old (23.8%).
The research interviewed 369 manufacturing industries in the state of São Paulo, from 12 segments and of all sizes, mapping the difficulties in hiring, the profiles of the most sought-after workers, and the most in-demand areas.
The Global Phenomenon of Labor Shortage and the Role of SENAI-SP
The lack of labor is a global phenomenon affecting both emerging and developed countries. Werner Eichhorst, coordinator of social policies and labor market at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), stated that “There is a narrowing between supply and demand, which goes through structural factors such as the capacity of the workforce and the change in demands.”
Creating opportunities for more women, immigrants, young people, and elderly individuals to enter the job market can help reduce the gap between available jobs and workers. “We need to better correlate present capabilities and needs. Education is essential for workers to adapt to technological changes, because there are still many opportunities in some areas,” Eichhorst added. He particularly highlighted the importance of professional education and mentioned SENAI-SP as an example of an institution that effectively fulfills this role in industrial training.
Demography and Productivity: The Next Challenges for the Industry
According to Ricardo Terra, regional director of SENAI-SP, the lower availability of people in the job market is due to demographic issues and the changing profile of the worker. “The participation of people in the workforce has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, and in the state of São Paulo, the migratory balance in recent years is negative by nearly 170,000 people,” Terra stated. Previously, São Paulo attracted workers from various regions of Brazil, which is no longer the case.
Marcello Souza, manager of market relations at SENAI-SP, warned about the number of individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs), which total more than 4.4 million formal workers, in contrast to the 3.4 million in the Paulista industry. Moreover, Terra emphasized the inversion of the demographic pyramid, which “will result in even fewer people available in the job market by 2050.”
In this context, the solution for the industry is to increase productivity. He cited the example of a company served by the digital transformation journey, a program led by FIESP and SENAI-SP, which maintained the same production with a workforce 20% smaller after participating in the journey.
The Legal Environment and Litigation in the Industrial Sector
The event also included a panel on the legal aspects of labor relations, moderated by Flavio Unes, director of the Legal Department (Dejur) of FIESP, focusing on Labor Justice. Luciano Timm, founding partner of CMT Carvalho, Machado e Timm Advogados, argued for a Labor Justice that is less paternalistic, stating that legal insecurity in labor matters is one of the main obstacles to new investments. “Labor Justice still believes in the capital/labor conflict. It does not consider the economic effects of its decisions,” Timm said.
Luciana Yeung, a professor of law and economics at Insper, highlighted that Brazil is known for its high litigation, being one of the countries with the highest number of lawsuits per capita in the world. “The world is evolving very rapidly, but this is not happening in the Judiciary. Labor Justice does not foster cooperation, but rather conflict. It practices predatory litigation,” criticized Yeung.
The information in this news was disclosed on the FIESP website on May 27, 2025.
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