Labour shortage stalls construction in Santiago

Construction without hands: «In a week they leave you high and dry»

The 90% job placement rate in vocational training programmes for construction, woodwork, welding and electrical work doesn't match what companies in the sector in Santiago say. The report that La Voz de Galicia published on 13 April 2024 describes a market where there are plenty of students in work but not enough complete crews. «If I could hire one more crew, tomorrow I could take on two or three jobs, but it's impossible for me,» sums up a professional in the Galician capital. The phrase that best captures the problem is another: «In a week they leave you high and dry, telling you this isn't for me.»

The 90% job placement rate that doesn't fill the gap

The placement figures are outstanding. Courses in construction, woodwork, welding or electrical work show employment rates of 90%, and much of that success is forged before they finish: Basic Vocational Training (FP) students spend half the course working at a company, and many are rehired both years. Schools point to an awkward nuance: some young people turn down job offers to continue their studies.

The mismatch is not about vocation, it's about volume. The city's big developers, such as Santiago Sur Galicia, admit they also struggle to hire. The coldest gauge is on the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción website: in the province of A Coruña alone there are around thirty open vacancies for different profiles. And they are not being filled.

The trades no one fills

There is a clear hierarchy in the shortage. The hardest roles to fill, according to José Manuel Gerpe, of Ingenia Hogar, are those who do foundations, structures, façades, welding and tiling. In other words, the tough and the specialised. That list also includes turners, cabinetmakers and electricians with knowledge of home automation and control systems.

The more specific the job, the worse it gets. Finding a bricklayer, a plumber or an electrician is still possible; getting a cabinetmaker who has availability is not. The vacancies posted confirm it: welders, scaffolders, formwork carpenters, coating technicians and experienced contract managers. There is no shortage of jobs for bricklayers, painters and skilled construction workers, but there are also openings for prevention and quality control technicians with €32,000 gross a year and at least three years' experience.

How much is paid, and how much should be?

This is where the part the report doesn't confront head-on begins. Among the offers circulating in the thread is one for €775 gross a month for a four-hour day, with a planned start date of 22 April. For a bricklayer working 50 hours a week, some cite figures of €1,200 or €1,300 a month, with no holidays or bonuses.

The calculation repeated among the most critical participants is simple: what is paid at €1,300 or €1,400 should really be worth between €1,800 and €2,000, they argue. One forum user details that a labourer paid €1,200 costs the company around €2,000 with social security contributions, and that a skilled worker paid €1,600 or €1,700 costs €2,400; their conclusion is that for a €400 difference the skilled worker delivers much more.

Keeping a crew costs less than finding one

Luis Louzao, of the pool company Aquadiseño, has his own theory about why people leave. Transparency, not passing the company's problems on to workers, paying every overtime hour and avoiding burning out staff. «In the end we spend more time together than with our families,» he argues. Óscar Rey, of Inmobiliaria Julio Rey, is one of the few who says he has no trouble finding professionals, and sums it up with a maxim: «You have to look after people».

The contrast described by the professionals themselves is clear: where every overtime hour is paid and rest is respected, staff stay; where there is a wages auction, the new worker can vanish within a week.

The physical toll and the courses workers pay for

There is a cost that appears on no payslip. The thread collects testimonies of chronic after-effects in the sector: hernias, damaged backs, people who are already limited for life at 35. Those who tell these stories argue that a trade that takes its toll on the body in instalments demands a wage premium that, in their view, does not exist today.

To the hardship, according to one forum user, add bureaucracy: the law says training courses are paid for by the company, but in practice—he adds—they are required of the candidate, with outlays that can be around €1,000. The same participant says that in some offers the applicant must provide safety boots, clothing, a car and tools before signing, and that the person hired is the one who asks for the least.

The small client, last in the queue

The one who pays the final bill for all this is not the big developer. When labour is scarce, the highest-budget projects get taken on first and the small ones wait. The result is waiting lists that can stretch to a year to build the house you have dreamed of all your life. The individual who wants to renovate a bathroom or build a villa competes, at a disadvantage, with those who move millions.

The paradox is served. A sector reborn after almost a decade surviving at half throttle, with 90% employment rates in its training courses and around thirty open vacancies in A Coruña alone, cannot fill its crews. Why do those who train find work, yet projects keep waiting?