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The construction industry is facing a crisis that could shake its foundations: a lack of qualified workers. With rising costs, an aging workforce and difficulties in attracting young people, the sector could face a blackout.
Brazil may be heading towards a silent but devastating crisis: a shortage of skilled construction workers.
Despite being one of the pillars of the national economy, the sector faces increasing difficulty in hiring qualified professionals, which threatens the continuity of important works and the growth of the real estate market.
In the latest survey by the National Cost and Index Research System, Engineering (Sinapi), carried out by IBGE, an increase of 69% in labor costs over the last ten years.
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This scenario reflects a threat that is already felt by businesspeople in the sector: 90% of them report difficulty in finding workers, according to research by Grua Insights.
The lack of bricklayers leads the complaints, followed by servants and carpenters.
The impact on the sector
This labor crisis is not just a cold data point in a report. According to the same study, 70% of companies have had to postpone the delivery of works in the last six months due to the difficulty in hiring.
This generates a cascade effect that affects investment planning, such as the estimated R$1,3 trillion that could be injected into the sector by 2029, according to estimates by the Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry (CBIC).
Renato Correia, president of CBIC, highlighted during an event in Minas Gerais that the problem affects the entire sector, which employs around 2,8 million people, according to the IBGE.
For him, one of the solutions would be to attract young people and informal workers to the construction, which offers one of the best entry-level salaries in the national market, second only to public service and technology areas.
Young people are not interested in construction
Another point raised is the difficulty in attracting young people, whose profile has changed in recent years.
Today, the average age of workers in the sector is 41 years, according to research by Grua Insights.
Correia believes that, to win over this audience, it will be necessary to further modernize the sector, with technologies that attract young people to an increasingly industrialized and digital market.
“Today, young people prefer to work on the internet, become influencers or seek professions that require less physical effort.
But the construction industry is transforming rapidly and has a lot of potential to attract new talent”, explained the president of CBIC.
More expensive works, more expensive properties
In addition to the labor shortage, rising costs directly impact the real estate market.
In November 2024, the cost per square meter in Brazil reached R$1.786,82, according to IBGE.
In Minas Gerais, the average value was R$1.684,62, but the accumulated increase over the last 12 months in the state exceeded the national average.
Felipe Boaventura, vice president of Labor Relations at Sinduscon-MG, highlighted that the lack of professionals increases the costs of works, whether due to higher salaries or the extension of the schedule.
He warned that this could cool the real estate market, as the middle and low-income public, which makes up the majority of consumers, has a low tolerance for price variations.
“Real estate sales in Belo Horizonte rose 60% in the third quarter of 2024, but an increase in costs could cause a significant decline in the future,” warned Boaventura.
Aging workers worsen the problem
Luiz Henrique Bombinho, a construction businessman in Belo Horizonte, stressed that workers in the sector are getting older and that younger workers have been looking for alternatives outside of construction, such as transportation apps.
For him, the sector needs to act quickly to avoid a blackout in the near future.
“The most experienced professionals are slowing down and many are already close to retirement.
If the sector does not attract new workers, we will have an even bigger problem in the coming years”, Bombinho predicted.
How to overcome the blackout?
Modernization, combined with the provision of better working conditions and qualification opportunities, is seen as the main way to prevent the sector from collapsing.
Renato Correia believes that invest in technologies and digitalization of processes can transform the sector into something more attractive and competitive for young people.
Faced with so many adversities, will the Brazilian construction industry be able to reinvent itself in time to avoid a collapse in the future?
The problem is that these troglodytes from Brasília do not invest in vocational schools throughout Brazil, the animals only think about stealing and their own navels. Bunch of idiots.
You are wrong because I entered the technical school IF at the age of 44, I finished my studies and retired at the age of 66 with a salary of more than 10 thousand reais and I did not find a young person who wanted to take my place because they do not want to leave the good life with mom and dad.
But if you screwed up and gave the good life to the young people then we are screwed my friend lol because the thinking of the parents of before that screwed the young people of today and the future because they always said that it was for the young people to study so as not to do what their parents did, that they were to graduate as doctors or something better, and that is what happened and the fault my friend is simply the parents themselves and not the STF or the government.
Where can you find a pension worth more than 10.000?
You must have worked in a government company
Definitely for the army there, which has high salaries and little work.
I also wanted to know, but this guy doesn't even know what a brick is, lol. I'm a bricklayer and construction foreman, I've been working in the field for 23 years, and today, at 40, I don't regret having trained as a construction professional. On the contrary, I'm very proud. I've already trained more than 9 bricklayers and tilers. In fact, the government invested a lot in education, but forgot that the professions of the poor in the past, where no one valued them, are now better than those of people who live studying. I, in turn, think that the lack of professionals is good, because that's the only way people learn to value them.
Absolutely certain that retirement through the INSS was not the case!
Because the ceiling is 7.784,00.
And to reach this ceiling, you would have to have spent, at least, your entire life always receiving more than 6 minimum wages! In other words, according to the INSS, the chance is 1 in 100!
Now, regarding Private Pensions, the conversation is different!
Therein lies the problem of professional appreciation, what you call bricklayers, I call them artists and architects, a cleaning lady doesn't work for less than 180 a day, and these people want to pay a daily wage of 180 to an artist bricklayer.
I have worked in the construction industry for over 41 years and for less than 350 I have not left the shack, I am no longer a replacement for these idiots.
I have a friend in Rio who is unemployed. Then they asked him to unload a dumpster, wanting to pay 80 reais. He went and it took him 3 days. I told him not to accept that this is slave labor. They don't pay for transportation or food. EXPLOITATION. THIS DEPRESSES THE GUY.
But a bricklayer's salary has always been the same as a cleaning lady's. The average Brazilian earns R$2.500. Is a bricklayer earning R$4.000 bad? And those who went to college and are earning that too. They are all earning an outdated salary. Not to mention that the more you earn, the more income tax deduction you will get.
In this case, the government is to blame **** that people vote for and even worse, inside the chamber, everything **** the people blame presidents but the **** are dressed in white collars and black capes
41 years with this daily rate and living in a shack?? ..
He said, I'm a tiler from DF, and I don't leave my house for less than 300, I prefer to stay at home drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, not to mention that on the weekend I buy that prime meat to roast, I don't leave my house for less than 300, not even the ****, but even so I don't lack clients and there's more, I don't work for a day, in fact, one day of my work on porcelain tiles doesn't cost less than 650 a day, that's not the goal of my day, you're absolutely right.
Okay, everything is fine, but how many square meters do you cover in one day? Nowadays, there are a lot of half-assed people who say they are tilers and don't know what it means to align and level a floor and square it.
My friend, I have been working in construction for 44 years. The salary in construction is not enough. Companies pay a starvation wage. When you work as a cat, you earn a little more, but when you leave, you have nothing to receive. That's why no one wants to work in construction.
Those who work on their own are making at least 10.000 a month. If they are good. Is that a way to kill hunger?
But the matter refers to the private sector. CLT receiving misery.
Everything was missing, these politicians are the cancer of Brazil
Construction has never paid well, and has always been looked down upon...what is happening is that workers are looking for other options...in the past, people from the northeast traveled to SP and worked in this field for very little...
This doesn't happen anymore... outdated sector... who will work hard under the sun to earn little? Today's young people? LOL come on
Congratulations, for the comment: “BRAZILIAN POLITICIANS ARE NOT WORTH THE EXCREMENT OF THE **** WHO WILL FIRST BE TORTURED TO CHEW THE COLD FLESH OF YOUR ANUS.
The three powers form a criminal organization, a NARCO-STATE.
In the IT sector, companies have invested in courses, even paid ones, for their employees. I ask. What have construction companies done all these years for their employees? They simply exploited them and fattened their bank accounts. Now they want to perform miracles. The bill has come, people are tired of being exploited. As the song goes, “See that building, man, I helped to plaster it, and today I can’t go in there?”
I agree with you, it's not about modernizing or providing courses, more than that, provide a salary that no one has, and you will see this episode change, no one wants to work for minimum wage! They prefer to sell candy at traffic lights, than work under the scorching sun of these construction companies!
I can tell you this because businessmen pay poorly and demand a lot from people who work in the field. I am a bricklayer, tiler and private construction foreman, as I said in previous comments. I don't leave my house to earn less than 300 reais a day. I came from a time when people paid assistants 8 reais a day and I left the construction site because all I did was provide a quality service to the boss's client and see the boss rich and me walking on foot. Then I learned to take on work, I take on two floors to cover and after finishing I get paid and stay idle or take on another job to do and you know why, because I stopped being **** lol