Construction companies from Queretaro, at 80% of pre-pandemic activity

Queretaro, Qro. After almost three years of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, local construction companies are still 20% below pre-pandemic activity, according to the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC), Querétaro delegation.

Currently, the companies in this field are at approximately 80% activity, continuing in a recovery phase, explained the president of CMIC in Querétaro, Óscar Hale Palacios.

Most of the construction companies carry out private works projects, trusting that they will continue to recover until they return to the productivity they had years ago.

“We are at about 80%, the same as the participation of the construction companies of the chamber, almost the majority have had private works, which is good, but we are still at 80%, we are still rescuing what had been lost from 2019 to here, but we hope reach those same numbers,” he said.

However, it was even before the pandemic, since 2018, when the industry began to report a decline in its activity, a situation that would be related to a drop in public works.

With the performance achieved by the industry at the end of the last quarter of the year, it projected to close 2022 with a 5% growth in production value, exceeding the 13.8 billion pesos of the previous year.

Therefore, there is confidence that the balance for the last quarter of the year will be positive with respect to the figures for productive investment in the industry.

“And we are hoping that in the last quarter of this year the numbers will be considerably high so that investment, production in construction, is more than the previous year,” he deepened.

Added to the development of the industry is the recovery and growth in formal employment, after the drop in jobs that occurred in the context of the pandemic.

Until October, 63,593 people were employed in construction, a figure that experienced a growth of 4% (2,429 jobs) in relation to the previous month, when there were 61,164 jobs, according to registrations with the Mexican Institute of Social Security ( IMSS).

“We are waiting for the end of the last quarter, it is very important because only from September to October employment rose, we are already at 63,500 (jobs) (…) we started at 53,000, so it has risen considerably between September and October,” he said. .

Between January and September 2022, the production value generated in the entity, in the industry, registered a drop of 11.4% compared to the same period of 2021; it also represents a decrease of 32% compared to the same section of 2019, exposes the National Survey of Construction Companies (ENEC), published by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

estados@eleconomista.mx