The construction sector in Spain lives a time somewhat delicate, because as long as many generations are missing, new generations are barely interested in trades such as masonry, plumbing or carpentry. The lack of generational relief threatens to leave work without qualified workers, and those who remain within the trade denounce that conditions are not attractive to young people.
In the podcast Crafts SectorSanti, a young Madrid mason who adds more than 20 years of experience with his father, offers a first person testimony of how he lives in scaffolding and what can be expected in an increasingly aged sector. “If you start looking for masons today, you no longer find anyone. Nobody wants to work on this,” he explains.
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Santi, plumber, about the future of the trade: “You tell a boy who wins 1,200 sitting on a computer and plumber 1.200, where would you go?”
The construction employer warns that a stricter time record would cut up to 27% salaries
The usual trade, with salaries today
Santi acknowledges that masonry is a hard work, of constant physical effort, where the shoulders, back and knees suffer over the years. However, that hardness is not compensated with salary. “Before the work was a trade with which you earned well, but today most young people prefer less sacrificed jobs although the same is charged,” he laments.
As he explains, a pawn enters charging the fair, with salaries that many times do not overcome the interprofessional minimum salary. First officers can get something higher, but not enough to attract new generations. “The problem is that youth does not want such a demanding job for what is paid. And without relay, in 20 years there will be no one left to build houses,” he warns.
The young man tells how he entered the family business: he started from below, as a pawn, springing with the gun like any other apprentice, regardless of whether he was a son of the boss. “You get lost, you get a lot, but you learn looking at the officers and little by little you are forming,” he recalls.
The problem, he says, is that today’s young people are not willing to spend that period of sacrifice: “Before they paid little or nothing at the beginning, but you did it to learn. Now many kids want to enter charging as officers without knowing how to put a brick.” A situation that complicates the viability of a trade that needs to transmit knowledge from generation to generation.
Social networks to give visibility to the trade
Santi combines the work with his digital facet as creator of content in Tiktok. Known as “The Tiktok mason,” shares tips, anecdotes and day -to -day tools. His goal, he says, is not fame, but to publicize the company and help people: “If someone has a doubt or wants to fix something at home without a kidney, try to answer and explain what I can.”
In addition, a WhatsApp group has created where young people from the construction of different countries meet. There they share doubts, experiences and job offers. “It is a way to motivate us among all and demonstrate that there are still people with desire in this sector,” he says.
The future of the work, in the air
Santi’s testimony reflects the crossroads in which construction is found in Spain: low wages, little attraction for young people and huge physical wear. At the same time, the need for housing is still high and the generational relay is almost non -existent.
“When no one is left, you will earn a lot of money in construction. But for the moment, the problem is that no one wants to enter,” he concludes.