38.1% of Spanish companies that claim to suffer from a lack of labor to fill all their vacancies acknowledge that they have applied salary increases to their staff in response to this problem, while 33.7% affirm that they are reducing production and sales.
This is clear from the Bank of Spain’s survey on the situation of companies, corresponding to the third quarter and collected by Servimedia, which highlights that “the incidence of labor availability problems is worsening.”
The existence of difficulties in this area is a perception shared by 39% of companies, almost 5 points more than three months ago. By activity sector, the problems continue to be especially pronounced in hospitality and construction, where more than 50% of companies declare that they are being affected.
Regarding the consequences that the lack of labor is having for companies, the Bank of Spain highlights that the main one is the reduction in personnel hiring (40.2% of companies). This is impacting to a greater extent on companies with more than 249 employees (44.4%) and to a lesser extent on those with less than 10 employees (33.7%).
In turn, 38.1% of companies that report detecting a labor availability problem declare that these difficulties are having an upward impact on their salary costs, with companies with between 50 and 249 employees leading the way. (43.2%) and those with less than 10 at the bottom (32.50%).
On the other hand, around a third of the affected companies report negative effects on their production or sales levels (33.7%) and, to a lesser extent, companies point to a negative impact on investment decisions (16 .5%), especially in the case of microenterprises (24.10%).
Similarly, difficulties in finding new workers would have led 16.1% of companies to reduce their layoffs in Spain, according to the data from this survey.
In parallel, more than half of the companies that suffer from the problem point to the lack of workers with the necessary qualifications for vacant positions. The problem is more pronounced in jobs that require job profiles with medium or higher professional training and, by branches of activity, in industry, construction and transportation.
The second reason most frequently indicated by companies is the difficulties in retaining employees, which are greater among low-skilled workers and, within them, among those in the branch of administrative activities.
Finally, issues related to working and remuneration conditions have greater relevance among jobs that require a university degree.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and Eurostat, in Spain, 0.9% of vacancies were unfilled in the second quarter of 2023. In this way, Spain is among the four countries with this lowest rate and far from the European average, which is close to 3%.
However, the CEOE and different employers’ associations have been warning that the figure is higher, which is why they are calling for reforms in the training system, so that it is more adjusted to the real needs of companies.
The same idea is shared by the unions, although they also emphasize that part of the responsibility for the lack of labor lies with the companies themselves, which, in certain sectors, do not offer attractive salaries and working hours.
