Balance of the construction industries indicated 2024 as a year when labor was a decisive factor for increasing costs in the sector. These costs accumulated growth of 6.54% last year, according to Sinduscon-SP, employer union of companies from São Paulo. The highlight was the increase in workers’ spending that, according to the entity, accumulated increases of 8.56%, while materials and equipment increased 5.34%and services were increased by 3.66%. The Basic Unit Cost (CUB) representative of the São Paulo construction (R8-N) was R $ 2,039.53 per square meter in December. By 2023 the accumulated increase was 3.49%.
The expectation for 2025 is of new elevations, as both the cost of labor and the pressure with the price increase are considered as right by the business community. For materials and equipment inflationary pressure will come from maintaining high interest rates, which also makes it difficult to take credit for the purchase of real estate, and increasing the costs of internationally tabulated materials such as steel, which has its price fixed in dollars and growing demand around the world.
The labor issue, in turn, has two major factors of pressure: the career cannot attract young people and there is difficulty to ensure proper technical training. The floor of the category, for the function of servant, varies between the minimum wage and a minimum wage and a half, being high the incidence of contracts for productivity in the sector, a measure criticized by the Workers Union.
“Such payments are not formalized in payroll (paycheck) and, more serious, do not have due collection of FGTS and INSS, which constitutes illegal practice. The Construction Industry Workers Union (Sintracon-SP) acknowledges that the lack of qualified labor contributes to employers to resort to these extra payments. However, it is important to emphasize that these values have no legal support, which makes it difficult to supervise and impairs workers’ rights, ”the union said by note to Agência Brasil. According to the representatives, the increase in the cost of labor has not been translated into appreciation of workers, and “the actual appreciation of the category should occur with the guarantee of rights and compliance with labor legislation”.
For David Fratel, coordinator of the Sinduscon-SP Human Resources Working Group, the segment faces a lack of labor and a problem of chronic aging, with the average age of workers in 42, when productivity begins to fall, precisely in a moment of high demand.
This gets worse with the difficulty of attracting workers who are entering the market and do not want to invest in training to try positions such as bricklayer and carpenter, which can offer earnings over R $ 10,000, even in the contract modalities criticized by the Workers Union .
An alternative, Fratel said, will come through the Permanent Forum of Entities negotiations, from which a career plan and standardized salaries are expected later this year. “Construction is changing to adapt to this young man, innovating and giving stability to workers, to adapt and attract him,” explained the manager. Among the initiatives are courses in partnership with the National Industrial Learning Service (Senai) , already carried out by the construction companies, and a partnership with the State Department of Education, which will bring vocational courses to high school in the public network and is scheduled for formalization this year, he added.
