Construction shortage of workers in Andalusia, half of professionals will retire in ten years

Young people who join us have no previous experience and will need some time to gain the necessary qualifications. Today, finding a construction manager and even a first-class officer is an impossible task. Those who exist, Companies compete for these goods in an economic bidding war which ultimately impacts labor costs. The only solution they find to this labor shortage is to bring in foreign workers, mainly from North Africa and Latin America. They already represent more than 20% of team workers, but construction companies face serious bureaucratic obstacles in recruiting them.

Faced with this panorama, society is urgently demanding solutions to the lack of affordable housing. Prices continue to rise – they rose 12% last year – and don’t appear to be hitting a ceiling. “I still see the stability of the real estate market as a very distant stability,” he admitted last Sunday. Jose Luis Verafounder of the Sevillian promoter Grupo GS, in an interview with ABC. “As long as supply does not increase, there will be no brake on prices,” he warned.

He himself suffers daily the consequences of this lack of personnel which has lasted for several years, particularly since the reactivation of the sector. In Seville, where there is great construction activity in housing estates such as Entrenúcleos and Palmas Altas, this affects more than in other territories. “In the construction industry there is plenty of work for anyone who wants to join, whether they have experience or not.but what we are seeing is that there is not a great demand for young workers. Yes, we find it among foreigners, but not among nationals,” says Vera. Faced with this situation, “I think it will be necessary to provide more facilities so that they can be hired.”

He refers to models that have been applied in other countries to continue construction activity. The group of companies he leads has projects in almost every region and has taken the plunge into Portugal, but “the problem is the same everywhere”, he says.

The obstacles and reluctance to join the sector come from the hardness of the work or the perception of it, underline certain reports such as that of Adecco, but Rosa VillasecaCEO of Grupo ABU, rejects these claims. “Perhaps before it could be like this, but now there is a good agreement, with very regulated activity and respected schedules, especially when the weather conditions are unfavorable like in summer. The sector generally complies with standards for protection against occupational risks“, he says.

The board of directors, which has more than twenty years of experience in the real estate development sector, emphasizes the loss of this workforce during the last financial crisis more than the harsh working conditions. “Then all the youth left the sector and dedicated themselves to other activities, which is very difficult to recover and, obviously, we did not succeed even if everything was reactivated. There has not been the necessary generational change and we find ourselves with a very significant deficit,” he comments.We’re going to have a problem in five years, because ultimately everyone who is active today at a certain age will also retire. We are not going to find qualified professionals for all the work that awaits us,” he laments.

And the problem is not only Andalusian, it is widespread throughout the country, as recognized Ricardo Pumar, chairman of Insur, in a recent interview with ABC in which he warned that “lowering the price of housing is very difficult under these circumstances with materials skyrocketing and labor costs increasing due to lack of staff.” Pumar reflected on the fact that “at the time of the real estate boom, 700,000 homes were built per year in Spain and now we are not reaching 100,000… and we are having problems finishing them.” In Spain there is a shortage of 250,000 housing units and, given that Andalusia represents 15% of GDP, around 40,000 are needed in the region.

Industrialized construction as an alternative

The problem does not only concern private developers, but also public companies like Emvisesa which face the same situation. These entities are promoting, but they must use private construction companies to construct VPO residential buildings. In this case, The use of industrial construction modules is used to reduce lead times and cover the gaps. This type of building is where the new model is most used, especially in parts such as facade fences, made of prefabricated concrete panels, but it is also increasingly common in interiors, where bathrooms and other rooms are installed where each socket is predefined.

This whole situation also has a direct effect on other activities such as home renovation or the construction of private projects. If five years ago the contracts provided for a budget one year in advance, today there is not even a deadline. The customer enters a waiting list and receives a response “we will call you”. In this way, building permit dates are respected without having time to install the rubble tank.

Work focuses on big promotions which are erected in Seville and the metropolitan area, where the contracts are of longer duration and exceed one year. This gives great stability to the sector, always characterized by a strong temporality. Small reforms, ultimately, end up being carried out within the underground economy because there is no alternative, with the risks that this entails for the worker and the loss for the public coffers of taxation and social security.