At 58, Juan José Martínez still spends his days shaping marble in a workshop in northern Galicia, fulfilling a steady stream of orders for kitchen countertops and funerary art. Despite sustained demand, Martínez sees a stark problem: almost no young people are entering the trade, putting the future of his profession at risk.
Martínez, who entered the marble business by taking over a family partnership nearly four decades ago, describes a busy but aging sector. “There’s plenty of work,” he says, “but not enough new hands.” The shortage of young workers is so acute that many workshops struggle to find anyone willing to learn the craft, let alone stay for the long haul.
Demand Without Recruits
The marble industry’s predicament mirrors a wider crisis in Spain’s construction-related trades, where a lack of generational renewal is becoming critical. Martínez points out that marble workshops, closely tied to the construction sector, feel the impact of its labor gap just as strongly. Confederación Nacional de la Construcción estimates that the industry will need about 700,000 new workers in coming years to replace retirees and meet housing demand. BBVA Research figures cited in Spanish reporting show that nearly 68% of bricklayers are over 45, while workers under 30 make up less than 5% of the occupation, down from about 20% two decades ago.
The broader labor figures underline the contrast between expanding activity and difficulty finding suitable recruits. Construction employment in Spain reached approximately 1,530,002 people in 2025, up 4.5% year on year, while workers under 30 accounted for just 10.8% of the sector. Companies declared 95,340 vacancies in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 43,495 remained unfilled for at least 90 days, information from figures attributed to the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción and Spain’s labor-force survey. Those numbers cover construction as a whole, not marble workshops specifically, but point to the wider recruitment pressures affecting related trades.
Physical demands remain a barrier. Even as workshops modernize with advanced machinery, the job still involves heavy lifting and handling large slabs of stone in damp, dusty conditions. For many young jobseekers, these realities make the trade less appealing, especially compared with less physically taxing options. Yet industry training initiatives increasingly emphasize that construction work calls for technical skills and competencies alongside physical strength. Ruta Construye 2030plus, working with the Andalusian construction training foundation, delivered 12 employment-training programs during 2025.
Compounding the problem is a lack of awareness about the opportunities the marble sector offers. While orders keep coming in, few outside the industry realize that skilled marble workers are in high demand and can build stable careers. The skills gap is not simply a matter of too few jobseekers: Spain’s public employment service has also identified insufficient experience and technical competencies as factors in hard-to-fill vacancies. That distinction matters in marble workshops, where operating automated equipment still depends on workers who can interpret measurements and prepare slabs, then oversee cutting and troubleshoot installation problems.
Technology Eases, But Doesn’t Replace
Modern equipment has transformed parts of the marble trade, making cutting and fabrication more efficient. Yet, as Martínez explains, machines still rely on the craftsman’s expertise: “I have to load them, unload them, and tell them what to do.”
Precision tasks, such as fitting a countertop or solving installation challenges, require years of hands-on experience. Machines can follow instructions, but only a seasoned marble worker can adapt to the quirks of each project. This blend of technical skill and manual know-how is difficult to pass on without direct, in-person training.
The wider construction labor market continues to show strong hiring activity. Spanish construction companies registered 90,359 contracts in September 2026, 52.3% more than in August and 10.5% above September 2025, with bricklayers and laborers among the most in-demand profiles, alongside electricians. The figures, attributed to Spain’s public employment service and compiled by the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, illustrate how recruitment demand can rise even as employers struggle to find trained workers.
Unlike other trades, there is no formal educational path for aspiring marble workers in Spain. Knowledge is transferred inside the workshop, from veteran to apprentice, but with so few newcomers, this chain is breaking.
Training Gap Deepens the Divide
Martínez believes the absence of a dedicated vocational training program is a major obstacle. “There’s no professional training to bring young people into this sector, and they don’t even know it exists,” he says. Without a clear route into the trade, most never consider marble work as a career. Workshops are left relying on older workers to teach from scratch, but finding willing candidates gets harder every year.
“There are no young people ready to learn,” Martínez laments. “I don’t know if it’s because they don’t know about it, or because they prefer to stay at home.” With many experienced marble workers nearing retirement, decades of expertise risk disappearing, leaving the sector unable to meet demand. The problem extends beyond construction: a Randstad and CEOE talent report cited in Spanish coverage found that 75% of companies could not find qualified technical workers, while the average age in installation and climate-control occupations exceeded 50.
This challenge extends beyond marble. Other traditional trades in Spain, such as agriculture, have faced similar dilemmas. One example came when a retired farmer in La Rioja was ordered to repay nearly €47,000 for working while on a pension, a case that highlighted the complex realities of succession and labor shortages in rural sectors (see more on the legal and generational issues in Spanish farming).
For now, the marble industry’s future depends on whether it can attract and train a new generation before the current one hangs up its tools for good.
