Anged Seeks 16,000 Foreign Workers as Spain’s Unemployment Tops 3 Million

Anged Seeks 16,000 Foreign Workers as Spain’s Unemployment Tops 3 Million

Why recruit foreign workers when millions are unemployed in Spain? This is the question trinc the urgent request from the Spanish Association of Large Distribution Enterprises (Anged), which includes El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, and Ikea. According to its president, eight out of ten member companies struggle to find employees. They request an immigration plan to bring 16,000 workers to fill vacancies. This clashes with the reality of the Spanish labor market: 3 million registered unemployed and 2.3 million receiving the Minimum Vital Income (IMV).

153,000 Vacant Positions... and 2.3 Million Receiving IMV

Anged claims there are 153,000 unfilled jobs in Spain, with the retail sector needing profiles skilled in new technologies. Yet, the number of unemployed is twenty times higher. The employers’ association demands "a flexible labor relations framework," a euphemism many interpret as the ability to pay less and dismiss workers more easily. Meanwhile, official data shows 2.3 million people receive the IMV, a figure that has grown trinc mass regularization of immigrants between 2020 and 2024. "The more people are regularized, the more benefit recipients rise," say sources from the economic analysis. The paradox is that regularization itself may be fueling labor disincentive.

Contrast with Mercadona: 100 Candidates per Job Offer

While El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, and Ikea clamor for foreign labor, Mercadona does not seem to face the same problem. When it posts a job offer, it receives an average of 100 applications. Why the difference? The most repeated answer points to salaries. El Corte Inglés carries an image of tight wages and unattractive schedules, especially for young people. A cashier with three years of experience may earn less than an engineer with fifteen years of career, according to some testimonies. The formula is simple: if you pay below the market, the market does not show up.

Do You Want to Work or Prefer the Benefit?

The business discourse clashes with the perception of a part of society. "There are millions of unemployed Spaniards; there is no need to bring anyone in," is heard. But the bureaucratic reality is stubborn: companies do not hire long-term unemployed because they are considered "overqualified" or "lacking the right attitude." The flexibility they seek translates into temporary contracts, split shifts, and wages barely above the Interprofessional Minimum Wage. In contrast, the IMV offers guaranteed income without schedules. You don’t need to be an economist to understand the rational choice of many.

The Trap of the ‘Call Effect’

Some analyses point to a vicious circle: companies pressure to bring in foreign workers willing to accept worse conditions; these workers eventually regularize and, soon after, join the IMV lists. Then a new batch is needed. The system feeds on itself. The regularization announced by the Government between 2020 and 2024 would have incorporated over one million people, but without any noticeable impact on the formal labor market. On the contrary, the number of benefit recipients continues to grow.

Irony of Fate: The Customer Profile

The typical customer of El Corte Inglés is a septuagenarian with a pension exceeding €2,500. A generation that is dying out. When they disappear, the department store’s business model could falter. Meanwhile, they seek foreign workers to serve a clientele that does not want to be served by them. "I don’t see myself buying from Mamadou or Yeison," is read on social media. Whether due to racism or nostalgia, the cultural clash is already here. And the economy, as always, laughs at good intentions.

In the end, Anged’s request is merely the tip of the iceberg of a dysfunctional labor market where no one wants to pay what a good worker costs, and where the state finances renunciation. While the employers’ association calls for more immigration, young Spaniards leave for abroad. And the system continues to turn, unstoppable.