The shortage of labour hinders performance in many sectors, including the construction industry. It became evident by now, that this is not just a temporary phenomenon. In the opinion of the executive director of Grabarics Ltd, the longer completion times and queuing of investors should be considered in their business plans by all the participants in the market sooner than later.

Press release

The need for change of approach in the construction industry

Recalibration instead of stress

The shortage of labour hinders performance in many sectors, including the construction industry. It became evident by now, that this is not just a temporary phenomenon. In the opinion of the executive director of Grabarics Ltd, the longer completion times and queuing of investors should be considered in their business plans by all the participants in the market sooner than later. 

It became evident by now that the labour shortage in the construction industry is not a temporary condition, but it represents a new basic condition - warned the executive director of Grabarics Construction Ltd. László Karacs added that not enough young people are available who would choose the necessary careers relative to the increasing demand and the impetus in the investments. At the same time, the situation is getting even worse with the (although decreasing) number of people leaving Hungary. The supply market prevailing in the past within the construction industry has changed to demand market for years - which is very unexpected in consumer societies - with all its disadvantages, which were almost forgotten in Hungary by now.

László Karacs argued: Players in the construction industry will be able to accomplish their projects only with significantly higher prices and longer completion deadlines because of the shortage of engineering personnel as well as the lack of blue collar workers. The large general contractors could very well lose on works of the contracts they signed on the basis of their own offers half or one year ago. This will reduce the volume of investment projects that can be implemented in a year, as well as the extension of the industry, which would be desirable considering the present market demand. The expert mentioned that these are the facts, but the market could decide how the situation should be handled. All the participants of the construction industry can be aware of the above development, and they can plan their future accordingly, including the pricing and implementation of the projects. This should be handled together by the clients and the service providers so that the planned works could be advanced and realized properly. Everybody would be better off if the new conditions were considered in the entire implementation process.       

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Grabarics Construction Ltd, owned by Hungarian entities, is one of the leading contracting companies of the country. Last year its revenues were over 12 billion HUF, the number of its employees is 160. During the activities of the company taking place in the past 25 years many large residential and public buildings, hotels and accommodation buildings, commercial and industrial projects were implemented.