“The prospect of strong growth in domestic construction activity in the coming years is expected to lead to the creation of approximately 55,000 new jobs in the construction industry,” said the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security, Vassilis Spanakis, speaking today, Saturday, May 25, at a panel on “Labor market: Shortage of technical personnel in the construction industry”, in the context of the 2nd International Exhibition “Project Machinery”.

Specifically, the Deputy Minister of Labour, during his intervention, among other things, said: “The prospect of strong growth in the domestic construction activity in the next few years is expected to create additional needs for a workforce of various specialties. This means that the total number of workers in the construction sector will increase within the next two years to around 250,000, according to the recent IOBE study, a level that is 50 to 55 thousand workers higher compared to the total employment in 2022.

At another point in his speech, Mr. Spanakis underlined that the construction sector is a major pillar of the country’s economic development, “which, in recent years, has experienced a really leapfrog growth”. “In particular, based on IOBE research, published in March 2024, the production value of the construction sector was estimated for 2023 at 12.8 billion euros, a level higher by 84% compared to 2017. This great mobility in the construction sector is expected, due to the government’s strategic policy, which restored the confidence of investors in our economy”, commented the Deputy Minister of Labour.

“Our government is aware of the problems that exist in the labor market in the construction industry and once again its intervention will be immediate and effective”, noted Mr. Spanakis and, specializing in the area of ​​his competence, he emphasized: “The government of Kyriakou Mitsotakis proves in practice that at the center of her policy is the worker and especially his health and safety. With the aim of maximum safety for workers, including those in the construction sector, we proceeded with a series of institutional initiatives, such as: 1) We provided by ministerial decision for the mandatory stoppage of work in heavy external work based on objective criteria of thermal stress, 2) we strengthened the body of safety technicians in the field of prevention and protection, 3) we updated for the first time, after 35 years, the list of specialties that can exercise safety technician duties, 4) we strengthened the role of occupational physicians, 5) we upgraded the level of supervision of health of the workers and we facilitated the work of the occupational doctors, defining specific directions in a circular for the content and the way of keeping the individual medical file of the workers”.