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Lack of qualified electricians pressures construction, industry, and energy in Brazil, with salaries of up to R$ 4.1 thousand under the CLT regime.
The lack of qualified electricians is no longer an isolated problem on construction sites and has started to affect civil construction, industrial maintenance, solar energy, building networks, and distribution companies. In January 2025, the Ministry of Labor and Employment reported that the construction sector is facing a lack of qualified labor and the average age of workers is 42, while the CBIC has started discussing actions with the government to train new professionals.
The alert comes at a contradictory moment in the Brazilian job market. The IBGE reported that the annual unemployment rate was 5.6% in 2025, the lowest in the historical series started in 2012, and that the country reached 103 million employed people. Even so, companies continue to report difficulties in filling technical positions, especially in roles that require qualification, safety, and practical experience.
The shortage of electricians appears within a larger crisis of qualified labor in Brazilian civil construction and industry
The case of electricians is part of a broader problem. In September 2025, the CBIC released a study by Falconi in partnership with the Sienge Ecosystem in which the lack of labor led the concerns of civil construction, cited by 71% of respondents, compared to 52% in 2023. In the same survey, training and qualification of the workforce appear among the paths pointed out by companies to address the problem.
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The industry also faces similar pressure. According to the Industry News Agency, based on the Industrial Labor Map 2025-2027, Brazil will need to qualify 14 million people in industrial occupations by 2027, with 2.2 million in initial training and 11.8 million in training and development.
This scenario directly affects areas such as maintenance, construction, industrial operation, and technical services, where electricians appear as strategic professionals.
What the data confirms is a widespread shortage of qualified labor in the sectors that most hire electricians, especially civil construction, industrial maintenance, electrical infrastructure, and energy.
The salary of the CLT electrician shows why the profession has become a strong alternative amid the shortage of technicians
Data from the Salary Portal, based on the New Caged, eSocial, and Web Employer, indicate that an electrician in Brazil receives an average of R$ 2,993.09 per month for an average workweek of 43 hours.
The same source indicates an average minimum of R$ 2,699.21 and a salary ceiling of R$ 4,180.98, considering 83,606 professionals hired and dismissed in the last 12 months under the CLT regime.
This amount can vary greatly depending on the region, type of company, experience, work in low or high voltage, building, industrial, maintenance, solar energy, or freelance service provision.
Caged warns: within the CLT regime, the profession already appears with an average remuneration above several entry-level positions in Brazil and with greater potential in specialized functions.
NR-10 transforms the electrician into a technical professional, regulated by safety and increasingly difficult to improvise
One of the reasons for the shortage is that the role cannot be filled with just goodwill or informal experience.
NR-10, a standard from the Ministry of Labor and Employment for safety in installations and services with electricity, establishes minimum requirements and conditions for control measures and preventive systems in work involving electricity.
The standard applies to the generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption of energy, including the design, construction, assembly, operation, and maintenance of electrical installations.
This means that construction sites, factories, businesses, condominiums, power plants, energy companies, and maintenance services need professionals capable of working safely and with proper documentation.
This requirement helps to explain why companies cannot quickly replace an experienced electrician.
The professional needs to combine education, practice, mastery of standards, diagnostic ability, and attention to risks that can cause serious accidents, shutdowns, fires, and material losses.
The expansion of solar energy has put more pressure on the demand for electricians in Brazil
Solar energy has also entered this equation. ABSOLAR reports that the solar source already totals tens of gigawatts of installed capacity in Brazil and more than 2 million jobs generated since 2012, with a strong presence of installation companies, integrators, consultancies, distributors, and operation and maintenance services.
This advancement increases the demand for professionals capable of installing, reviewing, connecting, and maintaining photovoltaic systems.
Although not every job generated in the solar sector is for electricians, the expansion of distributed generation and large solar projects increases the need for qualified electrical labor on rooftops, plants, inverters, protection panels, and connection systems.
The practical effect is direct: the electrician is no longer needed only in residential construction and building maintenance. They have also started to compete for space in renewable energy companies, utilities, industries, data centers, logistics warehouses, supermarkets, condominiums, and electrical modernization projects.
Civil construction depends on the electrician in a critical phase, when mistakes can delay delivery and increase project costs
In civil construction, the lack of electricians has a special impact because electrical service appears in decisive phases of the project. Infrastructure, conduits, panels, circuits, outlets, lighting, grounding, testing, and adjustments need to align with architecture, plumbing, finishing, and safety standards.
When there is a lack of qualified electricians, the project not only loses speed. It can accumulate rework, delay inspections, generate incompatibilities with other systems, and increase costs. Therefore, CBIC’s concern with qualification has strategic importance for construction companies, developers, and industrial project companies.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment also recorded that training programs in partnership with Senai were being structured to qualify workers and address the shortage of specialized professionals in civil construction.
The discussion between MTE and CBIC itself treated qualification as a central point to sustain the sector’s growth with safety and quality.
Energy companies are already creating their own schools to train electricians and reduce the shortage of professionals
The difficulty in hiring has led companies to create their own training programs. In 2025, Grupo Equatorial announced, in partnership with Senai, 400 free spots for the Electrician School Program in seven states, aimed at training professionals to work in the electric power distribution sector.
The company reported that since the program’s inception in 2022, the initiative had already trained 1,607 professionals, of which 833 were hired, according to a survey conducted in February 2025. This data shows that technical training is not being treated merely as a social project but as a concrete strategy to supply the labor market itself.
When concessionaires, construction companies, and industries invest in training, the market sends a clear signal: the traditional supply of labor does not keep up with demand.
The profession requires time for training, supervised practice, and constant updating, especially in the face of new technologies, automation, solar generation, batteries, and intelligent energy systems.
The lack of young people in the profession increases the risk of aging technical workforce
Another critical point is the average age of construction workers. The Ministry of Labor and Employment reported that the sector is facing an increase in the average age of workers, currently at 42 years, along with a lack of qualified labor. This data suggests a generational replacement challenge in operational and technical roles.
The low attractiveness of manual and technical professions among young people creates a structural problem. While many experienced workers are nearing retirement or migrating to autonomous activities, companies need to find new electricians capable of working safely in construction, maintenance, industry, and infrastructure.
The consequence is a greater competition for ready professionals. Those who already have experience, NR-10, good technical reading, and the ability to solve problems in the field tend to be more valued. For those seeking a career with relatively quick entry and constant demand, the electrical field appears as one of the most relevant technical areas in the country.
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