Trabalho e território

uma análise territorial acerca da predominância da indústria de calçados no mercado de trabalho de Candelária (RS)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the predominance of the footwear industry in the labor market of the municipality of Candelária, in Rio Grande do Sul, from a territorial perspective. The research is qualitative and results from a Master's Dissertation in Regional Development. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with female and male workers who worked in 2025 in the footwear industry of the municipality, organized around four thematic axes: sociodemographic data; work experience and daily relations; production process and organizational conduct; and reactions, support networks and care practices. Results indicate that 81.5% of formal industrial jobs in the municipality are concentrated in the footwear segment, demonstrating extreme productive specialization that conditions available opportunities for the local working population. Analyzed labor trajectories reveal that remaining in the industry does not stem from satisfaction with the activity performed, but from scarcity of occupational alternatives in the territory, configuring labor insertion as a socially produced necessity. The analysis highlights the articulation between global production dynamics and local territorial specificities, in which tobacco farming and the footwear industry produce a scenario of structural dependency and social vulnerability. It is concluded that Candelária's labor market expresses contradictions of contemporary capitalism articulated with regional singularities, reproducing both possibilities of insertion and forms of exploitation and work precariousness.