Six out of every ten young people who completed a higher degree in 2022 and found their first job in 2023 earned more than 1,200 euros per month, a figure that is above the minimum interprofessional salary (then, 1,080 euros, now 1,134 euros per month). Of these six young people who were starting their first job, two signed contracts for more than 1,500 euros per month.
The high labor insertion and the income levels of graduates are some of the data that are included in the 2023 study on the labor insertion of professional education in Catalonia presented yesterday by the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Josep Santacreu, and the Ministers of Education and Treball, Anna Simó and Roger Torrent, respectively.
Half of the middle-level graduates, who were employed full-time in April 2023, also reached salary levels this high. 34% were in the range of 1,200 to 1,500 euros per month, and 14%, more than 1,500 euros.
The bad news is that women earn less, much less overall, than men. Such is the difference that there are more boys with intermediate degrees earning more than 1,500 euros than girls with higher degrees earning that income.
Thus, in higher cycles, the bulk of full-time employed women are in the group that earns less than 1,200 euros, while among men it is in those that earn between 1,200 and 1,500 euros.
Among those who earn more than 1,500 there are 26% men and only 15% women. In medium cycles, 8% of women earn more than 1,500 euros compared to almost 20% of men.
One of the explanations for this phenomenon, which was pointed out during the presentation of the study, is the activity to which they are dedicated. There are more girls in the social-health sector, which is lower paid, and more boys in the technological and industrial fields.
The study, in its seventeenth edition, is based on a survey carried out on graduates (33,500 students) between six and nine months after leaving the educational center. The young people graduated in June 2022 and were asked about their situation between January and April 2023. Thus, 36% of those surveyed were working exclusively at the time of the survey; On the 19th they studied and worked at the same time; and 53% of the total vocational training graduates continued studying.
These data show a positive aspect, job placement continues to increase (two points more compared to 2022) but, on the other hand, on the negative side, it shows that training continuity drops by 1.47 points. That is, once they complete the cycle, they do not continue studying in another degree or at the university. And this trend is more worrying for middle-grade students, who do not continue in a higher cycle or enroll in another middle grade, a stagnation that, in the medium term, reduces their expectations of progress and improvement in employment.
In the upper cycle, of those who continue studying, 60% do so at the university.
More than half of graduates were working in April 2023 and almost 12% were looking for work. This unemployment figure is low compared to the unemployment rate, which was 22% among young people between 16 and 24 years old.
As for the most demanding activities of professional technicians, there are eight families with a labor insertion of more than 75% (maritime fishing, installation and maintenance, mechanical manufacturing, energy and water, wood and furniture, tourism and chemistry) and 11 families with an insertion between 50 and 75 percent.
It should be noted that the professional families of energy and water and installation and maintenance are focused on emerging sectors related to renewable energy and the environment and that are a priority in the strategic objective of the reindustrialization of this Government. Sports education has an insertion of 66%.
Finally, the study asks how they found the job. The majority stayed in the company where they did their internship or it recommended them to another. Secondly, they used their network of contacts (the boys) or threw out resumes (the girls).
These data, the councilor pointed out, will improve in next year’s survey because more dual training is being offered (there are 14,000 students who are trained between the educational center and the company) which further increases job placement.
In this sense, Simó asked the Chamber of Commerce to encourage companies to welcome students since next year all training will be dual. “We need many more companies,” he said.
