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Demographic transformations, historical stigma, and low productivity help explain the shortage of construction workers, as young people migrate to alternatives outside construction sites and the sector tries to adapt to a new economic and social reality.
The Brazilian construction industry faces a shortage of workers that goes beyond the competition for bricklayers on construction sites and exposes profound changes in the labor market, demographics, and the way the country still views manual occupations.
In recent months, executives from large construction companies have reiterated that “the bricklayer’s son no longer wants to be a bricklayer,” while reporting young people’s preference for working as delivery drivers, app drivers, or digital content creators, according to a report published by the site Invest News.
Although recurring explanations point to Bolsa Família, transport and delivery apps, or lack of willingness to work, economists and industry representatives argue that these factors account for only a limited portion of the observed phenomenon.
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Demographic change and labor shortage
In this scenario, economist Daniel Duque from FGV highlights that the current shortage needs to be analyzed in light of transformations that began in the 1990s, when Brazil started to combine a rapid decline in fertility with a gradual increase in average schooling, according to an investigation by the site Invest News.
According to IBGE, the fertility rate dropped from 6.28 children per woman in 1960 to 1.55 in 2022, a level below population replacement, reducing the number of young people entering the labor market.
This movement not only decreased the supply of workers but also altered the professional expectations of an entire generation.
While rich countries went through this transition accompanied by strong mechanization, immigration, and investments in productivity, Brazil went through the same process amid low economic growth and limited adoption of technology on construction sites.
Bolsa Família and apps in the debate
In public debate, Bolsa Família is often cited as one of the factors for the reduction in the labor supply, especially during the period when benefits were expanded during the pandemic and access criteria were temporarily relaxed.
Even so, the impact of the program does not solely support the narrative of abandoning construction sites, especially since the number of beneficiaries decreased after the peak recorded during that critical period.
In April 2026, the program served more than 18.9 million families, below the approximately 21 million recorded at the height of the expansion, indicating a more punctual than structural effect.
Meanwhile, apps began to compete for the same profile of construction workers, mainly young men, residents of the outskirts, and without a university degree, offering an alternative with greater flexibility and perception of autonomy, as also pointed out by the site Invest News.
In this context, the decision to migrate to these services involves not only income but also social recognition and professional identity.
Historical stigma of manual labor
Historically, the construction industry has served as an entry point for workers with low education and few formal opportunities, sustaining a model dependent on a large supply of low-skilled and low-paid labor.
This pattern persisted while the country produced workers in vulnerable situations on a large scale, a condition that has been changing with demographic, educational, and economic changes over the past decades.
The legacy of slavery helps to understand why manual labor still carries strong social devaluation in Brazil, influencing both external perception and choices within families themselves.
As Daniel Duque summarizes, the stigma reduces the salary and the low salary, in turn, perpetuates the stigma.
Ramalho, president of the Construction Workers Union of São Paulo, illustrates this logic by stating: “I don’t have any of my children as bricklayers,” highlighting that he encouraged his five children to seek higher education.
In this way, the rejection of the profession comes not only from the young but also from the workers themselves, who avoid a path for their children marked by intense physical effort, low pay, and few prospects for advancement.
Sector strategies to attract workers
In this scenario, some construction companies have come to recognize that the solution is not limited to increasing the number of available workers, requiring structural changes in how the sector organizes and values its activities.
According to Davi Fratel, director of SindusCon-SP, one of the initiatives involves revising the nomenclature of functions, replacing the generic term bricklayer with specific names related to the activities performed on sites, in an interview given to the site Invest News.
In this model, functions such as drywall installer, tiler, and formwork assembler emerge, in an attempt to associate the activity with technical skills and reduce the stigma historically linked to the profession.
The strategy seeks to value specific skills and reposition the image of work in civil construction.
Another relevant axis is professional qualification, with the creation of career paths and integration with institutions like Senai, allowing the worker to gradually advance within the structure of the worksite.
Furthermore, industrialization emerges as a central element, encouraging the use of prefabricated systems, panels, and more standardized processes, capable of reducing the dependence on intensive labor and increasing productive efficiency.
Productivity is still a structural challenge
Despite these initiatives, productivity remains one of the main bottlenecks in the sector, impacting costs, deadlines, and the companies’ ability to plan at different stages of construction.
Data from CBIC indicates that the cost of labor in construction rose by 8.98% in 2025, surpassing official inflation and putting even more pressure on the cost structure of construction companies.
At the same time, the difficulty in measuring productivity highlights a management problem, as the sector still lacks precise indicators on the time and resources needed to perform specific tasks.
Without clear productivity parameters, it becomes more difficult to plan works, size teams, and justify investments in technology.
This limitation is associated with historical informality and low standardization of processes, factors that hinder the adoption of more efficient practices comparable to those of industrial sectors.
While employer representatives argue that advances in productivity, qualification, and industrialization should precede discussions on wages and working hours, workers argue that income appreciation cannot be postponed.
In this context, the idea that the bricklayer’s son does not want to follow the same profession reveals only part of the reality observed in the sector.
In practice, what is at stake is the refusal of a work model marked by low appreciation, intense effort, and the absence of clear prospects for professional growth.
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