The construction industry closed its best year in terms of direct employment in the last six years. According to data from the Chamber of Construction of Uruguay (CCU), 2021 ended with an average of 49,044 jobsa highest since 2015. For its part, Decemberended up with 53,940 employed workershis highest level for that month since 2014.
Thanks to push of large works such as construction from the second floor of PSU in Paso de los Torosthe work of central railwayand also of various real estate projects, The industry is approaching the record employment levels registered in 2012 and 2013 with more than 68,000 workers directly employed per year.
CCU
The construction sector expanded 6% in 2021 and had one positive incidence of 0.3 percentage points in the 4.4% growth that the Uruguayan economy showed last year. In the period October Decemberthe construction increased its activity by 0.6% compared to the same quarter of 2020 due to increases in building works (UPM) and other constructions such as the Central Railroad and telecommunications and road services, the Central Bank (]BCU) reported in its National Accounts report.
Expectation to maintain activity in 2023
worried about him impact that the exit of the UPM project and the Central Railway will leave From the first quarter of next year, the Construction Chamber presented the President of the Republic Luis Lacalle Pou with a series of initiatives to give public works a greater boost by 2023.
Within the framework of the tour of the progress of the work on the viaduct of the port boulevard, the Vice President of Operations of Saceem, Alejandro Ruibal, said that he had the expectation that the Executive Branch would collect some of the proposals that his union submitted to the president to maintain the dynamism of the sector in the future.
“The president was very receptive in analyzing the impact of the eventual drop in activity once projects as large as UPM or Ferrocarril Central are completed,” Ruibal said.
In this sense, the businessman was optimistic that progress could be made in the construction of a new water purification plant in the Río de la Plata, between Arazatí and Bocas del Cufré, for which an investment of about US$250 is estimated. million, sanitation and housing projects. “If these projects materialize, construction activity should not fall,” Ruibal considered.
