Spain's industry sheds over 9,000 jobs amid factory closures and layoffs

More than 9,000 jobs destroyed: Spain's industry loses momentum

Between late 2023 and early 2024, Spain's industrial map turned red. Factory closures at Bimbo and Danone, production halts at Ford suppliers, and layoffs at ArcelorMittal, Siemens Gamesa, and Ford itself have affected over 9,000 workers, with antiestéticars that the list is not complete.

Closures and layoffs: the new industrial landscape

The wave hits diverse sectors: food, steel, automotive, and wind energy. Bimbo and Danone close plants; ArcelorMittal and Siemens Gamesa announce layoffs affecting thousands; Ford's supplier network suffers. Even a well-known law firm, an unlikely victim of deindustrialization, announced 200 layoffs in a single week. The common thread is not sectoral but transversal: production is losing steam across all fronts.

The causes: energy, taxes, or a cyclical adjustment?

Consensus breaks down here. One current blames energy policy: a government that, alongside Germany, rejects nuclear power and leaves electricity costs soaring. Another points to fiscal pressure and bureaucracy: when taxes consume more than half of revenue, competitiveness is a joke. But others recall that rising interest rates caught many companies with inflated balances and shareholders demanding cuts. The cycle of expensive money, not ideology, appears to be the true executioner. Legal certainty antiestéticatures in all scenarios.

Next Generation Funds: the manna that doesn't convince

The issue is tangled with the €150 billion in Next Generation European funds, presented as the boost industry needs. The skeptical reading is devastating: debt is subsidizing a productive fabric that continues to destroy jobs. If the manna is not fully executed, the mirage will be double.

Artificial intelligence: cause or excuse?

Automation is a usual suspect: machine translation, autonomous driving, and generated code are under scrutiny. But another view nuances this: AI is the perfect excuse in a high-interest-rate environment, and companies do not even trust it after the Samsung scandal involving ChatGPT, which led many to ban its use by programmers. Real job replacement by algorithms, they say, is still far off.

Two and a half years later, the diagnosis remains unchanged

The most worrying aspect of the period comes at the end: two and a half years later, the situation remains exactly the same. Terraces are full and GDP masks the picture, but empty warehouses, 600,000 trained professionals who emigrated, and job searches requiring over 50 cold calls for just three interviews paint another reality. The analysis stalls here: no one fully explains why European funds, interest rate cuts, and consumer spending fail to reverse the hemorrhage.