150,000 unfilled jobs in Spain amid 11.6% unemployment

71% of SMEs cannot fill vacancies despite 12% unemployment

September 2023. Spain has around 150,000 unfilled job offers, according to the INE, with the unemployment rate hovering near 12%. This labor paradox is textbook: the country leads unemployment in the European Union while simultaneously recording record highs in vacancies. Cepyme highlighted this in its report The Challenge of Vacancies in Spain: 71% of SMEs face difficulties filling positions, and for the first time in ten years, there is approximately one vacancy for every 100 employees.

The employers' association warns that the actual figure could be "significantly higher," as measuring vacancies in small businesses is an approximate exercise. The problem knows no sectors: it spans from primary to tertiary, with greater intensity in technical and service profiles, and extends equally to industry and construction.

Why there is unemployment and vacancies at the same time

None of the causes in the report are mutually exclusive. Depopulation, family support, and in some cases, subsidies, reduce the urgency to accept a job. Public intermediation does not help either: employment services place less than 5% of claimants. And above all, training, with poor education in technological profiles and little accustomed to continuous learning. Eight out of ten companies cannot find personnel with the exact qualifications they request.

The result is a market where there are too many candidates and too few specific ones. With a surprising detail: Spain has a higher proportion of university graduates than other comparable countries, but many end up in unskilled tasks.

The offer that asks for a director and pays an intern

Job seekers cite examples like these: an offer for a degree in economics with five years of experience, SAP proficiency, team management, English, French, and German, commercial orientation, own car, and a 9 to 7 schedule, for 1,800 euros gross per month. Or a computer engineer with ten years in backend architectures, Oracle, microservices, and half a dozen more technologies, for 40,000 euros gross annually. Processes for accounting positions are also mentioned that require a university degree, three years of experience, a specific ERP, and advanced Excel to end up recording invoices.

Some see these ads as a way to document that they are looking for people without intending to hire under those conditions. Others argue the opposite: that the problem is that the company cannot pay more because margins do not allow it.

Why so many offers do not publish the salary?

Because the salary cannot withstand comparison, according to those who track job portals daily. The rule that circulates is simple: an offer without a salary band is an offer with a poor salary, and the professional who already has a job does not bother sending their CV. According to reports, in many cases the figure appears late, in a call, and is usually below what the position requires. They also point out the inverse phenomenon: the same vacancies are reposted every few weeks, which in their view points to a problem not of visibility but of conditions.

From gross to net: what is left behind

According to a calculation circulating in the debate, for an employee to take home 1,000 euros net per month, the company pays nearly 500 euros additional in contributions, the worker contributes another 300 to Social Security, plus about 200 in income tax and around 50 for training and unemployment: nearly 1,050 euros that go by the wayside. Those who defend this calculation draw an uncomfortable conclusion: one can work full-time and still be poor. The complete breakdown, with each concept separated, reveals a difference that surprises anyone who only looks at the payslip.

Young people, university graduates, and the mismatch of profiles

Demographics push in the same direction. Since 2003, the number of young people working or seeking employment has fallen by 31%: 761,000 fewer, at a rate of 38,000 per year. Aging and prolonged studies explain much of the decline. At the same time, several participants argue that career choice does not match demand: there are too many administrators and too few engineers, trades, and industrial profiles, with vocational training cycles in construction and industry sparsely populated compared to administrative branches that still fill classrooms.

Fragmented employment and undeclared work

Some point to the form employment has taken. According to this reading, affiliation marks a record while hours worked fall: more contracts, less hours. The result would be part-time jobs and annual salaries that do not reach the minimum wage, unattractive compared to the alternative of waiting. This is compounded by underground activity: some work de facto but are registered as job seekers, inflating unemployment statistics while simultaneously emptying formal offers of candidates.

With these threads, the diagnosis always gets stuck at the same point. If the problem is salary, training, or regulation, each places the piece where it suits them. What no one disputes is that there are positions that have been open for months without a candidate willing to accept them under those conditions.