100,000 jobs would be threatened next year in construction

The building is in trouble. The French Building Federation (FFB) estimated on Tuesday that activity in the sector should fall by 6.6% in 2024, weighed down by the halt in new construction, particularly housing. Without the measures in favor of housing contained in the finance bill for 2025, currently frozen, the FFB expects that 100,000 jobs will be destroyed next year in construction, after 30,000 jobs eliminated this year according to its first encryption.

“We could have titled this presentation “PLF for housing: failed again””lamented Olivier Salleron, president of the FFB during a press conference. “There was everything needed in the finance law to give back this influx to citizens to reinvest in real estate”he added, repeating that he is “crazy” for him to leave companies without visibility. “Employment has remained at a very high level this year, to the detriment of productivity” but, without support measures, “in 2025, there will be a big drop in employment”alerted the president of the FFB. At the start of 2024, it planned to eliminate 150,000 jobs in construction by 2025: this threshold “risks being exceeded in 2026”he estimated.

In detail, the 15.6% decline in new construction was observed mainly in housing (-21.9%), and is only slightly offset by a small increase of 1.2% in activity. improvement and maintenance in 2024. For 2025, the FFB forecasts a decline of 14.6% in new construction, including -14.2% in housing and -15% in non-residential. Improvement and maintenance work will only progress by 0.9% in 2025, while “given what is happening politically, we should be much better”underlined Olivier Salleron, referring to aid for the energy renovation of buildings. Overall, the federation anticipates that construction activity could further decline by 5.6% in 2025.