Retail association warns of 16,000 job vacancies in Spain

Retail association reports 16,000 vacancies and calls for training and flexibility, not pay rises

The commercial distribution sector ended the year with 16,000 unfilled job vacancies, representing 11% of the national total, according to a Manpower study presented at the annual assembly of Anged, the trade association representing major retailers such as El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, Eroski, Alcampo, Ikea, Fnac, and Leroy Merlin. Eight out of ten companies in the sector admit to difficulties in recruiting both operational and technical profiles. The president of Anged, Matilde García Duarte, warns that this shortage "could potentially stall companies' strategic plans." Retail employs 1.96 million people in Spain, accounting for 14.5% of the total workforce, and Anged companies employ 235,785 workers after creating 6,900 jobs in the last year.

What the association wants and what it omits

Anged's solution involves formal training with curricula aligned to the sector, dual vocational training, more support for internal training, a flexible labor framework, facilitating the recruitment of foreign professionals, and ensuring market unity through regional coordination. Nowhere in the list of proposals is a wage increase mentioned. This silence has sparked debate: some interpret the diagnosis as an excuse to justify the arrival of labor willing to accept conditions that local residents reject.

García Duarte acknowledges that companies invest more than 50 million euros in training, but considers it insufficient: "there is a gap between formal education and market reality." The CEO of Eroski, Rosa Carabel, admits difficulties in attracting technical profiles, noting they are "very difficult to capture and even harder to retain." At Ikea, CEO Nurettin Acar boasts of internal promotion; at MediaMarkt, CFO José Manuel González Vara points to turnover and team management as main challenges with 7,000 employees; at C&A, Mark Cuthbert calls retention an "absolute priority."

The sector's argument: it is not the salary, it is the mismatch

The official narrative insists on a talent mismatch. The most optimistic calculation assumes a lack of specific technical profiles in IT, logistics, omnichannel retail, or sustainability. The pessimistic scenario suggests that what is lacking is people willing to accept two- or three-month contracts, unpaid holidays, and responsibilities exceeding the job description. In the middle lies an uncomfortable fact: productivity per employee in Spanish distribution is 165,000 euros, compared to the European average of 197,200, with 3.8 employees per company in Spain versus 4.9 in the EU. The productivity gap is real. The question is whether it is closed by paying less or paying better.

The Secretary of State for Commerce, Amparo López Senovilla, closed the assembly with an optimistic message: 2.7% growth and 280,000 jobs created. She offered government support to a "strategic" and "socially cohesive" sector. This macroeconomic optimism clashes with the experience of those who have spent twenty years in large retail stores, describing management roles split among various interests, major unions signing agreements without holiday compensation, and rolling month-to-month contracts.

The turnover trap: one-month contracts and months of waiting

A pattern repeats in industry testimonies: month-to-month hiring, with gaps of several months without being called back, and a demand for total availability that excludes anyone with children or a mortgage. A person with responsibilities cannot sustain that rhythm. Another, with a degree, sends resumes to supermarkets and large retailers without receiving a single interview. The result is a paradox that no one in the sector fully explains: the association says there are too many vacancies, and candidates say they aren't being called.

The most common explanation points to *enchufe* (nepotism/connections) and recommendations as the real entry point, with processes that open more to accumulate candidates than to fill positions. When added to the fact that a coordinator's salary with a degree barely exceeds the SMI (minimum wage) by 2,500 euros annually, the equation does not add up for trained workers. Meanwhile, the discourse regarding lack of motivation collapses on its own: who stays motivated with split shifts, working weekends, and a paycheck that doesn't cover rent in the city where they work?

Immigration, productivity, and the elephant in the room

The proposal to facilitate the recruitment of foreign professionals has triggered the most sensitive debate. One part of the analysis argues that the arrival of external labor puts downward pressure on wages and perpetuates a low-cost model. Another current points out that the country has the highest youth unemployment rate in the OECD and that importing workers while local talent is available is, at the very least, a contradiction. The debate often drifts into identity-based territory that adds nothing to the economic diagnosis, but the core of the problem is different: if a position is not filled, either the salary is too low or the conditions are poor. There is no mathematical third way.

Productivity, meanwhile, remains the data point the association uses as both an alibi and an accusation. With 3.8 employees per company compared to 4.9 in Europe, the Spanish scale is smaller and the investment per worker is lower. That explains part of the gap. It does not explain why companies with hundreds of millions in profits still refuse to move the entry-level salary bracket. Training is necessary. In this context, it is also an elegant way of not talking about paychecks.

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The sector has 16,000 vacancies, 235,785 employees in Anged companies, and a productivity that trails the EU by 32,200 euros per worker. Given these facts, the question is not whether training is lacking. It is whether anyone is willing to pay what it costs to fill the position.