“The Spanish Job Market Conundrum: Why Employers Struggle to Fill Vacancies Despite High Unemployment”

There is a conundrum in the Spanish job market. How is it possible that in a country with three million unemployed, one third of companies have problems finding suitable workers? But the confusion doesn’t stop there. Despite statistics showing that Spain has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the entire European Union, why do employers still complain about not being able to find staff for hundreds of thousands of jobs?

Last week, the debate about the shortage of labor in certain sectors and the possible solutions came to the fore again. The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has announced that he intends to make it easier for immigrants being trained for jobs with a labor shortage to regulate their residency status. This is made possible by a regulation called “arraigo para la formación”, which was introduced last summer and is now being relaxed.

Both the unions and the Department of Labor have repeatedly questioned whether the problem of job vacancies is as widespread as employers claim. Moreover, the available data is even contradictory. On the one hand, the latest quarterly survey of companies by the Central Bank of Spain shows that 35% of companies have indicated that the availability of labor has had a negative impact on their activities. This percentage has more than doubled since the start of the pandemic and even rises to 50% in sectors such as hospitality and construction.

Nevertheless, the data on vacancies published by the Spanish Statistics Office INE and collected by Eurostat at the European level point in the opposite direction. According to INE statistics, the vacancy rate compared to the employed population in Spain is only 0.9%, while the Eurozone average is 3.1%, according to Eurostat.

Construction industry

Construction companies complain that they have serious problems finding highly qualified profiles such as construction managers, but there is also a shortage of masons, formworkers, carpenters and machine operators. In Spain there are almost three million unemployed and there are also undocumented immigrants who can be employed in production processes where there is a shortage of personnel. If this isn’t enough, it’s worth considering bringing in employees from the outside. It is estimated that there will be work for about half a million workers in the construction sector in the short and medium term.

catering industry

According to the Hostelería de España industry association, between 50,000 and 70,000 vacancies will remain unfilled this summer due to a labor shortage. There are major problems with scarcity, especially in the interior. Open positions are also expected in popular beach destinations such as the Costa del Sol, Costa Brava and the Balearic Islands.

Why so many unemployed?

At first glance, it seems surprising that a country with three million unemployed struggling to fill vacancies. But the situation is more complex. For example, it is important to remember that of those three million unemployed, 1.2 million are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been out of work for more than a year. Older employees over the age of fifty play an important role within this group.