The Spanish labor market is inefficient. There is a high level of unemployment (13.8%) and, at the same time, a high supply of jobs that cannot be met, due to the lack of qualified professionals. This imbalance affects 41% of the thousands of Spanish executives surveyed by ManpowerGroup. That’s the highest figure in the last decade, a situation that is repeated around the world, where more than half of the 14,000 executives surveyed said they have great difficulty hiring the staff they need. Especially for digital transformation.

"We need specialists in Artificial Intelligence (AA), application developers (apps), customer management experts (salesforce), but also Vocational Training (VT) technicians, who are just as difficult to find technology today. with carriers or bone deboners ..., jobs that have a great supply but very little demand, ”says Javier Blasco, director of the Adecco Group Institute.

Specialists are also needed in the construction sector, such as obvious bricklayers, blacksmiths, cranes or machine operators. In the industry, on the other hand, companies lack the following workers: automotive forklift drivers, die workers, welders, millers, mechanics and electromechanics. The same is true for food, food handling experts, skeletons or slaughterhouse workers, “because their specialized and well-paid profiles require a lot of physical effort and are subject to thermal stress,” Blasco explains.
It is easy for these employees to find work, according to experts, due to the high demand of companies. In general, primary school technicians can receive a salary of between 25,000 and 35,000 euros gross per year, although the most sought after ones reach 40,000.

More than college graduates

All the sources consulted agree in stating that in 2019, for the first time, the requirements for VET professionals exceeded that of university graduates. “Their results are higher in employment, as well as in pay, because many university students do not work in places that have a relationship with their education,” says Andreu Cruañas, president of Asempleo. Adecco was up 42% from 38.5%. At Infojobs, where three million job offers are managed each year, a quarter of jobs require vocational training, while 14% require higher education. Neus Margalló, head of research at the job portal, says that more than 40% of the ads are aimed at people with no education or basic education.

In fact, even though the future (as well as the present) is digital, the contracts that Spanish companies make are still not like that. Of the 22.5 million documents signed in 2019, less than 1% are computer technicians and programmers. They also don’t appear among the most growing jobs. The contracts with the highest growth were those of actors (28%), occupational risk prevention technicians (27%), waste classifiers (23%), journalists (19.6%), crane and machinery operators (19.4%), and health emergencies. technicians (18.9%), animal killers and meat industry workers (18.5%) and distributors or couriers (15.9%). Computer requirements are up 6% compared to 2018, according to the State Public Employment Service (Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal, SEPE).

However, the most repeated complaint from employers and human resources professionals in recent years is the lack of digital experts. They need all sectors, not just technology. Infojobs again contextualizes: an average of 38 candidates have been nominated for a job. In the case of computers, they do not reach ten.

Request more profile

The most requested and most difficult-to-fill profiles, where there is no unemployment, are many. They are engineers, cybersecurity experts, network administrators, programmers in Python environments, big data, robotics, artificial intelligence, 5G or augmented reality. These requirements have very high average salaries, according to Blasco, because they can earn between 50,000 and 60,000 euros a year. These also include social media programming experts, digital analysts or specialists in the customer experience.

"Profiles of this type are not found because there are very few, because there are no degrees that prepare them in these specialties. They don't study blockchain chains and digital marketing. Either they do a master's or enter a boot camp with six months to get that education," he continues. The president of the temporary business board, where 770,000 candidates and 4.3 million contracts are driven a year, believes the administration is responding to labor market needs with a noticeable shortage of candidates with education after two years, and is likely to provide two more to promote studies. the requirement may end when you take them out. "That's the problem," says Cruañas, "between the lack of linkages between education and employment systems. That's what's happening today with big data."