Touching picture: the salary of painters and plasterers has increased 1.5 times in a year

Painters have become the most scarce specialty in construction this year, and their salaries are growing the fastest — by almost 40% in a year, according to recruiting services. Working professions are still in short supply, but for engineering personnel, normal competition between applicants for a place is already being recorded. Salaries of housing brokers are also growing rapidly: the construction industry is trying to sell its facilities faster. About who else is needed in the industry and what employers promise, see the Izvestia article

What kind of workers are missing

The main shortage in the construction industry is now observed only in working professions, the most difficult situation is with locksmiths and painters, it follows from the data of the recruiting company. hh.ru and the developer SK10.

"There are currently five construction professions in surplus, but the main shortage and shortage is observed exclusively in work areas, the most difficult situation is with the profession of a locksmith and a painter," said Maria Ignatova, director of research at the recruitment service.

The construction industry is in the first place among the areas with the greatest need for staff by the end of June 2025, SuperJob confirmed. Electricians, electric and gas welders, electricians, plumbers, and carpenters are most often sought after among skilled workers.

In hh.ru It was noted that the salary of painters and plasterers increased by almost 40% over the year — to 118.4 thousand rubles, housing brokers — by 46% (to 180.3 thousand rubles), real estate agents — by 24% (to 177.3 thousand rubles).

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But the official data for the first quarter is 1 billion rubles less than the estimates of the trade unions.

According to Avito Works, finishers were more than twice as likely to be sought after in the first half of 2025. This is due to the fact that renovation work is actively underway in already commissioned apartment buildings. The average salary offered for specialists in this profession was 128.3 thousand rubles, which is 14% more than last year.

Roofers are in second place, and demand for them has also doubled. The average remuneration offered was 110.6 thousand rubles, an increase of 16%.

—Bricklayers are closing the top three in terms of job growth: they are being searched for 72% more often," said Andrey Kucherenkov, Director of the Working and Linear Professions category at Avito Jobs. — Employers on average offer 144 thousand rubles. The demand for roofers and bricklayers is associated with the growing popularity of individual housing construction projects.

The top 5 also includes plumbers and foremen. New employees are willing to pay an average of 71.9 thousand rubles and 127.4 thousand rubles, respectively.

However, the largest income is now offered in vacancies that are not related to working professions: for example, more than 180 thousand rubles are offered to real estate brokers. Engineering professions took the second place in terms of income in construction this year: a surveyor can earn on average almost 154 thousand rubles, the chief engineer of the project -159 thousand rubles. In third place were two working professions in demand on the country's construction sites: almost 149 thousand are offered to foremen and almost 138 thousand to machinists.

Why is there a shortage

The demand for foremen and machinists is consistently high, confirmed Elena Machikhina, HR Director of the SK10 development company.

"We understand that in addition to competitive remuneration, it is extremely important to create attractive working and development conditions for specialists, so we are systematically working on this," she added.

There is a salary increase, but it is not critical, added Olga Fedchenko, head of the HR department at the same company.

—The salary of painters has increased by 10% this year," she said. — In principle, this is a reasonable indicator, taking into account inflation and price increases in most product categories. In addition, it must be remembered that the work of a house painter is harmful, and this factor also affects wages.

Elena Grinenko, Head of the Construction Cost Control Department at the Glavstroy development company, noted that the dynamics of wages for various specialties in the industry is directly dependent on the situation on the real estate market.

— The demand for specialists of a particular profile directly depends on the economic state in which the entire market is located, — the expert noted. — A slowdown in demand and a decrease in monolithic production are unlikely to stimulate a request for finishing work. Many market participants, on the contrary, in the current conditions, are ready to review the economics of projects and reduce the amount of finishing work, but not increase it.

The increase in salaries for painters and plasterers is due either to the gradual replacement of the migrant workforce, or to a reduction in the number of illegally employed workers in the construction sector, says Evgeny Tkachev, a real estate expert.

— For example, the Krasnodar Territory can be considered as an example of labor replacement in construction, — the expert explained. — As for the salary growth in the segment responsible for sales and accompanying them, it also looks quite logical.

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According to him, developers need to increase their sales in the face of falling sales volumes. In this situation, the developer's own sales department often competes with small agencies, where the main migration of personnel takes place.

"Salary increases here remain a necessary condition for minimizing staff turnover and increasing employee motivation," he said. — In addition, real estate agencies are also very busy recruiting for themselves. There are ads even on social media.

In particular, at the round table "Personnel collapse. Who does the market need now?" at the Movement forum, Maria Korelskaya, Director of Organizational Development at Precisely Group, said that the problem of staff shortages went beyond HR — it directly affects the cost of projects, the timing of commissioning facilities and the sustainability of the development business.

Many companies in the industry today face fierce competition for staff. The demand for skilled workers is many times higher than the supply. We are talking about concrete workers, installers, bricklayers — they are ready to hire them for 80-200 thousand rubles per month. But even at such rates, the competition remains extremely high.

"To attract the right specialists, you have to use everything: digital recruiting, referral programs, and your own databases," she said. — At the same time, we are forced to review the financial models of projects in which such personnel costs were not initially included in the payroll.

According to her, the demand for working professions has sharply increased due to changes in migration policy. The flow of foreign workers has decreased, and substitution at the expense of domestic reserves is limited: vocational schools do not cover the needs of the industry, and retraining requires time and resources.