A new report was released on the employment situation in the construction industry: the latest data reveal that the sector showed a sharp reduction in jobs between November 2023 and April 2024 in the province of Entre Ríos.
At the national level, activity had a drop of 37% in that period.
In dialogue with Radio Plazathe deputy secretary of the Construction Workers Union of the Argentine Republic (UOCRA), Entre Ríos section, Hugo Salazar, commented that “from November to date, according to the Institute of Statistics and Registry of the Construction Industry (IERIC ), there are 4,527 construction workers who lost their jobs as a result of the stoppage of public works.”
In this context, Salazar made reference to the possibility of reactivating works in the province, with the recent announcements of the Government of Rogelio Frigerio in this regard. “We see that companies are calling workers to restart activities,” he admitted, but clarified that this “is not an immediate process either.”
Likewise, it should be noted, according to what the Minister of Planning, Darío Schneider, expressed in recent days, that the Government’s priority is to finish the works started, not to start new works for the moment.
“We are impacted by the national public works, which is the metropolitan aqueduct, the Arroyo Colorado, the completion of access to Paraná through the Industrial park,” Salazar highlighted, in reference to the works stopped since the assumption of Javier Milei as President, making it clear that beyond the provincial announcements, a possible reactivation, in those cases, transcends the provincial level: “We live under a democracy that is clearly presidential, and the decision and continuity of the work comes from Mr. President Javier Milei”, he emphasized.
The construction situation in the private sector
On the other hand, the second of the UOCRA in Entre Ríos pointed out, beyond public works, that the private sector, “as a result of inflation, which does not have certainty, does not invest what it should invest.”
In that sense, he exemplified, “when you go through a building project, if due to the volume there should be 20 or 25 workers, when you go there are 8 or 10.”
However, Salazar also stated that there was a sharp drop in informal construction work, in the case of bricklayers who do work in family homes, with a particular indicator: “When you were walking through Paraná a while ago you saw several piles of sand , of materials, on the sidewalks and today you don’t see them, it’s not that frequent.
