The gap between the jobs demanded by companies and the skills of the candidates continues to widen in Spain. A total of 133,988 job vacancies, the highest figure since 2013, were left unfilled in the first quarter of the year, according to the National Statistics Institute on Thursday. Of this total, 88.9% of the unfilled positions were concentrated in the services sector. The employers’ association Cepyme already warned a few weeks ago that in Spain there is a shortage of profiles with digital skills, experts in technology and data analysis, health workers, construction workers, carriers and drivers, farmers and ranchers, drone pilots, waiters. warehouse and waiters, among many other professions.
The communities with the highest number of positions that could not be filled in the first quarter of 2022 were Catalonia, Community of Madrid and Andalusia. For their part, those with the fewest vacancies are Cantabria, La Rioja and Extremadura. Considering the percentage distribution, Catalonia, Community of Madrid and Andalusia brought together more than 56% of the total vacancies this quarter.
94.4% of the rest of the companies asked by Statistics responded that they had no vacancies to cover between January and March because they did not need additional workers.
The figures published by the INE also show that the average labor cost per worker per month (remuneration plus social security contributions) increased by 4.7% in the first quarter of the year, reaching 2,729.01 euros.
This increase in labor costs, with which five consecutive quarters of increases are chained, is a consequence of the greater number of hours worked, since the reduction in time not worked for technical, economic, organizational and production reasons and/or force majeure compensated the increase in hours not worked due to vacations and sick leave.
The labor cost is made up of the salary cost and other costs. Between January and March, wages (all remuneration, both in cash and in kind) rose by 5.2% year-on-year in gross terms, reaching an average of 2,006.61 euros per worker and month, exceeding for the first time the 2,000 euros in the first quarter since the beginning of the series, in the year 2000.
Non-wage costs increased by 3.5%. Its main component, mandatory Social Security contributions, grew by 4.8%. In the variation of non-wage payments, the decrease in compensation for dismissal stands out.
The average salary in the hospitality industry shot up 67.8% year-on-year in the first quarter, reaching 1,150.73 euros per month per worker.
