Construction companies have adapted to the sudden increase in demand by using subcontracting clearly more than before. However, the share of foreigners in the workforce has not increased any more. It has even decreased in house construction in all areas and remained unchanged in infrastructure construction. The information appears from the latest labor survey by Rakennusteollisuus RT.
The rapid rise in construction after a few years of recession can be seen as a strong increase in the total strength of construction sites. At the beginning of last November, a total of more than 46 people worked at the building sites of RT member companies, which is almost half more than three years ago, when the survey was conducted last time. Most of the growth is from Uusimaa, where exceptionally large projects are underway.
Capacity has been quickly increased through subcontracting. In house construction, the share of own labor has decreased to 21 percent and in infrastructure construction to 45 percent. The labor market director of Rakennusteollisuus RT Tapio Karin According to
A significantly larger proportion of the employees of subcontractors are foreigners than of the personnel on the main contractors' own payrolls. However, the share of foreign labor in the total labor force has no longer increased hand in hand with subcontracting. In the survey, the main contractors report not only their own workforce but also the information of their subcontractors and temporary employees.
At the house construction sites of organized general contractors, on average, one in four workers is a foreigner in Uusimaa, compared to one in three foreigners three years earlier. Elsewhere in Finland, the share of foreigners has dropped from ten to five percent. In infrastructure construction, on average, every tenth employee is from abroad, with the share correspondingly higher in Uusimaa and lower in the provinces.
"So the upswing in construction has not only been based on greater use of foreign labor, but an even greater number of jobs have gone to Finns. Some of the foreign builders have also settled in our country permanently and received Finnish citizenship. Most likely, the mandatory tax number and notification procedure have prevented the sending of foreign gig workers to Finland," says Tapio Kari.
Nowadays, construction companies know more precisely who works on the construction sites and how working conditions and tax payment are managed. Since 2013, all those working on construction sites must have a tax number and must be registered in the tax number register. In addition, the law on the notification procedure that entered into force in 2014 requires that subcontractors report their site employee information to the main contractor on a monthly basis. The main contractor, on the other hand, is obliged to keep a list of all employees on the site and report the information to the taxman every month.
Background information on the labor force survey
The construction industry RT's labor force survey was conducted in the building industry for the seventh time, the first survey was in 2007. At first, the surveys were conducted every year. The last review period was two years, now three years have passed since the last survey. In infrastructure construction, the survey was conducted for the second time.
In the survey, companies are asked about the total number of sites and employees, as well as the number of their own employees, temporary employees and subcontractors, and the share of foreign employees. The information is asked as a cross-section from one day at the beginning of November. This time the date was November 1, 2016.
206 companies responded to the survey of the building industry and 102 companies responded to the survey of the infrastructure industry. The answers do not cover all the sites of RT's member companies, nor any sites outside the membership. However, the results of the survey give direction on the use of foreign labor in the construction industry as a whole, because the companies participating in the survey also provide the employee information of their subcontractors operating on their sites.
The labor force survey materials and also region-specific information can be found on RT's website
http://www.rakennusteollisuus.fi/Tietoa-alasta/Talous-tilastot-ja-suhdanteet/Tyovoimakyselyt/
More information
Tapio Kari, labor market director, tel. 0500 300 990
Kim Kaskiaro, branch manager of house construction, tel. 050 548 1691
Paavo Syrjö, branch director of infrastructure construction, tel. 040 560 1803
Merja Vuoripuro, director of communications, tel. 040 587 2642