Miracle jobs: there is no unemployment here, but full employment

The Spanish labor market has seen better times.

But above all much worse.

Despite the economic uncertainty caused by the turbulent times the world is going through, with two wars in Ukraine and Gaza, 2023 closed with half a million jobs created and 2.7 million unemployed, the lowest figure for a month of December in 16 years.

“Last year was a good year for employment taking into account the international context,” says Mónica Pérez, head of Infojobs Studies.

“Compared to the falls in digital job offers registered in Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and France, of between 21% and 14%, in Spain they have barely fallen six tenths, although in the second half we have seen a slowdown.

This has caused the publication of vacancies to drop by just over 10% on Infojobs,” she maintains.

Like the rest of the sources consulted, by 2024 they expect the market to remain quite similar to the previous year.

“The unemployment rate, at 12%, will approach 11% because Spain will continue to be in a good economic situation,” according to Jorge Santamaría, director of the Northern Zone of LHH Recruitment Solutions, of the Adecco Group.

An opinion shared by Xavier Michel, head of professional recruitment at Manpower, for whom the sectors that are going to drive hiring the most (and that are already doing it the most) are technology and logistics and transportation (although in both the demand of companies fell last year) and energy and industry.

Santamaría highlights the pharmaceutical and health branches as those that are recruiting the most, ahead of industry (with food, mass consumption, chemicals, cosmetics, perfumery, plastics... very active) or energy.

The construction is also very strong, he says.

In all these sectors there are professional profiles who do not know about unemployment.

In general, profiles that are in high demand, which companies take off their hands.

Such as experts in infrastructure, security and

big data

in the technology industry who, although they do not hire as much as they did two or three years ago, are raffled off.

Not so for software

engineers

, who are more affected by the impact of artificial intelligence and the lack of financing for

start-ups

, according to the director of the Adecco Group.

Data, cybersecurity and DevOps engineers or those in charge of optimizing the delivery of

software

solutions enjoy full employment and salaries that range between 50,000 and 80,000 euros gross per year, at least in the case of the latter, the most sought-after.

Security analysts are, according to Linkedin, the professionals who will lead the job market this year.

Data and artificial intelligence engineers occupy positions 11 and 13.

In health, nurses and doctors are the desire of hospital management companies, which take them out of their hands, just as pharmaceutical companies fight for technicians in production quality and digital

marketing

.

Positions that also lack unemployment, according to Santamaría and that, in the case of the highly sought-after hospitalization nurses, earn between 28,000 and 35,000 euros annually;

while the most sought-after doctors, those specialized in anesthesiology, can earn between 56,000 and 100,000 euros gross per year.

Other profiles that have full employment are those of “hard engineering” professionals, as Xavier Michel calls expert automation engineers, probably the most in demand at the moment;

electronics, electricity or systems.

“In Spain there are 800,000 active engineers, but 200,000 are missing to respond to the technological revolution that we are experiencing in the next 10 years,” he appreciates.

The Manpower expert highlights, above all, specialists in electrical, mechanical or heavy equipment maintenance as those most needed by companies at a time when, instead of investing in new equipment, they prefer to continue with old ones due to economic uncertainty.

These engineers can earn between 30,000 and 50,000 euros per year on average, although there are companies that, given their lack, choose to give them a blank check, explains Michel.

“Now the power is in the hands of the candidate, not the company.

In fact, some companies have paid 80,000 euros to these professionals,” he adds.

An inflation that is new for these profiles, as was the case for technological experts, which has now stopped, he says.

The energy sector, especially everything that has to do with renewable energy, is very busy.

Job offers are constant and there are certain profiles that lack unemployment.

Michel highlights those responsible for maintaining photovoltaic or biofuel parks.

“Whoever is currently specialized in maintenance has a guaranteed job,” he maintains.

But also the professionals focused on the construction of these parks, who can earn 60,000 euros annually when they lead the projects.

And solar panel installers, according to Infojobs.

A study by the human resources company and Cepsa presented this week in Davos assures that green hydrogen or biofuels will create 1.7 million new jobs in Europe until 2040. Spain will be the country where these jobs are most abundant, its forecasts speak of the generation of 181,000 positions.

quality technician

If the quality technician is the ace in the hole for the industry, just as for the pharmaceutical sector, according to LHH Recruitment Solutions, the construction manager is the same for construction.

According to Santamaría, companies raffle off both profiles.

And while the first professional can earn between 40,000 and 45,000 fixed gross euros depending on his experience, the second receives on average between 45,000 and 55,000 euros per year plus variable remuneration.

Regarding electronic commerce, the head of professional recruitment at Manpower assures that in the wake of Amazon and logistics companies, many new jobs, qualified and unskilled, are emerging, which are currently unaware of unemployment and for which great projection is expected. .

He speaks of transport managers or

traffic managers

, who are in charge of planning routes or agendas so that the company does not lose money and who did not exist before, like the heads of logistics centers, a function for which they can be charged between 50,000 and 70,000 euros annually.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented evolution in job skills, where innovation and technological adaptability are the keys to success,” says Verónica Arteaga, head of People and Culture at Softtek.

And the skills required for jobs have changed 25% since 2015 and are expected to change at least 65% by 2030 worldwide, according to Linkedin.

Commercial branch

The three large categories most in demand by companies and which bring together a million vacancies, almost 40% of the total according to Infojobs, are commercial and sales;

purchasing, logistics and department stores and customer service.

They are the great job generators.

Among them, there is a need for waiters (they earn 22,600 euros on average), agricultural workers or truck drivers, professions with harsh conditions and schedules that are causing companies to raffle them off.

Just like good commercials.

Account managers and industry executives are positions with full employment, indicates the portal, where a commercial representative earns 33,000 euros gross.

Follow all the information on

Economy

and

Business

on

Facebook

and

X

, or in our

weekly newsletter