Exodus of workers hits Nicaragua’s construction sector hard

Migration to the US and other countries has sharply reduced the number of qualified workers in Nicaragua’s construction industry, presenting a huge problem for the sector, according to the Managua union for carpenters, bricklayers and assemblers.

As many as 80% of the sector’s workers have left the country, representing “thousands of lost jobs,” Vos TV reported the union’s secretary general, Óscar Blandón Cruz, as saying.

Most of the workers that have left Nicaragua are carpenters, plumbers, topographers, bricklayers, assemblers, master builders and engineers, said Blandón. 

“Low wages, long working hours, work overload, non-paid overtime, are the reasons why employees are migrating,” he said. “This provides more remittances, but this could mean that next year these workers could take their families [to other countries]. We must reflect on the subject because if they continue to be treated this way, we will run out of labor.” 

With the aim of reducing the labor deficit, the Nicaraguan construction chamber runs a training program in cooperation with the national technology institute (Inactec), and some other training centers, with a focus of turning young people into qualified construction workers.