4% of construction workers are foreign

New study shows percentage of foreign workers in Israeli construction industry is lowest in Europe

Reuters | Published: 04.20.11, 07:38

The percentage of foreign workers in the Israeli construction industry is the lowest in Europe, a new study shows. Only 4% of workers employed in the construction industry in Israel are foreign, compared to 17% in Spain, 13% in Italy, and about 5% in Romania.

According to a study conducted by the BDO Ziv Haft accounting firm for the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel, foreign professional manpower is used all over Europe, and the number of foreign workers in Israel is minimal compared to Europe.

According to the figures, about 148,000 workers are employed in the construction industry, and only 6,000 of them are foreigners – about 4%. In Western countries, both the number of foreign workers and their percentage in the construction industry are much higher, according to the study.

In Spain, for example, the number of foreign workers reaches 324,000 – 17.4% of the construction industry's manpower. In Switzerland, their number reaches about 32,000 – 12% of construction workers. In Germany – 10%, in England – 9.3%, in Ireland and Portugal – 8.8%, and in Denmark and France – 7.9%.

The number of foreign workers in the construction industry in Eastern Europe is also higher than in Israel: 5.7% in Czech Republic and Hungary, and about 5% in Poland and Romania.

Motti Kidor, director of the Association of Contractors and Builders in Israel, noted that the entire Western world uses foreign laborers for professional construction work.

"We are in the midst of a housing crisis, with an apartment shortage and rising prices. We need another 15,000 foreign workers for five years in order to close the gap between the supply of apartments and the demand, and carry out projects of infrastructure and public construction," he said.