Over the past two years, the Ministry of Labor has gone from downplaying the problem of labor shortage in Spain to carrying out several studies into the reasons behind it. Of course, keep focusing on the “cunfavorable working conditions” offered by companies. The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) places them among the main causes of difficulty finding workers“particularly in construction, hospitality and commerce”, sectors in which the rejection of working hours, schedules, salaries or the “difficulty” of jobs causes a real “talent drain”.
The analysis highlights that it is not just about “low wages”, but that a “inappropriate” work environment. This includes issues such as the organization of working time , the “geographical mobility” that it imposes on workers, the type of contract, its temporality or seasonal nature and the “hardness or precariousness” or precariousness of the position. Therefore, the need to “increase inspection and improve working conditions” is proposed as a possible solution to resolve certain problems. which scare away potential workers.
According to estimates from the SEPE Career Observatory, the fact that no one applies for a job offer explains 25% of positions that remain vacanta greater impact than that of rejecting candidates with the required training. But the refusal to accept the conditions is also the first reason why the selection process in which a suitable candidate appears They end up shipwrecked.
As a result, people ready for the position end up trying their luck in professions other than those corresponding to their training, which further aggravates the situation. the mismatch “between job supply and demand”.
In its latest annual report on Labor Market Trends, the Observatory emphasizes a thesis defended by the second vice-president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Diazin response to complaints from businesses and employers in these same sectors regarding difficulties in finding workers. But it supports them with an in-depth survey of regional public employment services, chambers of commerce, municipal employment agencies, private employment agencies, job portals, professional organizations, unions, universities and businesses.
However, his diagnosis of the situation in construction, hotels and commerce remains paradoxical, because these are also the activities in which permanent contracts have increased after the labor reform. Particularly in construction, which has benefited from a special “indefinite-term” contract which can be terminated if the project is concluded without the company. can move the worker to another. A formula that reminds many workers of old employment and service contracts, even if now the severance pay is slightly higher than that of an objective dismissal.
But the fact that these jobs benefit from a more stable type of contract is not an advantage if they continue to operate in more “difficult” conditions, which explains why the agency dependent on the ministry focuses on them. And this situation is reflected in the results of his research..
Four out of ten vacant positions remain “deserted”
The Observatory’s survey detects 19 professions which record the greatest hiring difficulties, a list led by waiters and cooks, masons, drivers, plumbers, welders, electricians, mechanics or nurses in which no profession linked to the digital sector or technological appears, despite being among those who have most increased the number of vacancies. It should also be taken into account that many of these job searches They are not managed by public employment services and companies “have relatively less difficulty finding qualified personnel”.
On an overall average, the lack of candidates made it impossible to hire in 24.5% of the cases studied, while the lack of minimum training added another 16.9%, which may address the “talent drain” which pushes candidates to try their career. luck in careers for which they are not sufficiently prepared.
But once the initial filter has passed, which explains 41.4% of unfilled positions, The question is what prevents when a candidate presents himself. Here, the first cause is disagreement over working conditions: they reach 15.9% of the total. A percentage higher than the 11.4% of processes in which the candidate lacked “technical skills” for the position, or the 9.3% in which they did not have sufficient experience. An additional 8.9% were missing”personal skills” and 5.62% “transversal skills” (such as language proficiency), while 7.9% were attributed to other causes.
However, this data fluctuates considerably depending on the profession. Thus, the paradox arises that in those activities in which the lack of suitable candidates hindered the filling of vacancies less than in others, disagreement over conditions became the reason why hiring did not take place. This happens between servers and cooks and family helpers.
On the other hand, in more qualified health professions, such as nurses and doctors, where the lack of candidates was the biggest problem, disagreements over working conditions carried greater weight than the rest when it came to of the position that would be covered. Those for whom this cause played a major role were plumbers, welders, electricians and mechanics.
These results seem to partially contradict Work’s thesis. Thus, in activities related to construction, even if the disagreement over working conditions is relevant by making a position vacant, These are nothing but the technical skills of the candidate.
But the Observatory emphasizes that we must here focus on the “missing” candidates, which can be largely explained by their rejection of working conditions, particularly among young professionals. “Sectors such as agriculture, transport, hospitality, trade and construction are not attractive to many young people, which aggravates the difficulty of coverage”, Isince the study.
For construction, this results in a situation where a “serious problem of aging workers and labor shortages“. Although it is necessary to distinguish between less qualified positions, such as masons, and those that require more training, such as plumbers, electricians, etc.). “There is a lack of technicians in training professional, mainly, and not only in construction. , but in industry in general and in transport, which is a limiting factor for attracting talent and modernization” says the study.
