Construction accounts for 60 percent of investments and 15 percent of gross domestic product. One in five of the employed earns a living from the real estate and construction industry or related services. The built environment makes up more than 80 percent of our national wealth.
565 billion euros of our national wealth is tied up in buildings, infrastructure and built-up land. Apartments are the largest asset of both individual Finns and the nation as a whole.
The construction industry employs a quarter of a million people, and including the real estate sector and related services, more than half a million. The cluster is the largest employer in Finland.
Construction brings work and tax revenue
The majority of the workforce are Finns. The labor force survey conducted for the last time in 2019 shows that about one in three of the workers at the house construction sites of the main contractors organized in Uusimaa is a foreigner. In the rest of Finland, foreigners make up about ten percent of the workforce.
According to the tax number register of the construction sector maintained by the Tax Administration, the vast majority of those working on construction sites are subject to Finnish taxation.
An investment of one million euros means 11 to 14 man-years of work in construction. For example, investments of one billion euros in house construction provide work for 14 people for a year.
Taxes and tax-related payments account for more than 40 percent of construction. This is the basis of the high leverage of government subsidies for construction. Subsidies are returned to society in the form of jobs and taxes.
VTT's survey The societal effects of construction tells, among other things, about construction's cash flows and employment. The report is updated every few years. The most recent report is from 2021.