The lack of workers in certain sectors of our country worries businessmen and the Government. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE)in Spain there are 109,000 unfilled vacancies, an important part of them in sectors such as hospitality, agriculture or construction.
Given this circumstance, the Ministry of Labor decided to meet this Monday with the social agents to analyze the causes of this phenomenon, and the first conclusion they reached is that the main problem, which is not the only one, lies in low wages and poor working conditions, as reported by both the Secretary of State for Employment and Social Economy, Joaquín Pérezlike the unions Workers Commissions (CCOO) y General Union of Workers (UGT).
“Pay them more”. The solution for these sectors to attract workers, therefore, is for companies to improve the working conditions of their vacancies, both in terms of salaries and hours. To do this, in addition to the message getting through to Spanish companies, the unions suggest that the inspections of the Ministry of Labor on the working conditions of job offers be intensified, to ensure that they comply with the minimum established by law.
“Some of the vacancies that are occurring in specific territories and in sectors such as the hotel industry have to do with not paying enough, there are no breaks, the hours are exhausting and workers cannot reconcile their personal and work lives”, Perez explained.
And the unions point in the same direction: “The (agricultural) employers complained this summer that there was a lack of labor, but 15,000 Spaniards went to the French harvest because they were given adequate economic and labor conditions,” says Mariano Hoya, Deputy Secretary General of UGT.
problem located. In the meeting held yesterday, both Labor and unions also came to the conclusion that the lack of candidates is not a general problem, but that it is localized in certain sectors. On the one hand, those already mentioned in the hotel, agricultural or construction sectors, mainly due to poor working conditions, and on the other, in productive activities in which there is a lack of qualified labor, such as technology.
For the second case, the unions point out that the solution is to improve the training offer and direct it to the profiles that the labor market currently demands the most and that it will need in the coming years.
Studies back it up. Government and unions are not the only ones that point to poor working conditions as the most important factor for the lack of labor in certain Spanish sectors. Just a few days ago, the Infojobs employment portal published a report that concluded that 80% of the candidates who reject a job in our country do so because they consider that the salary is too low.
One problem, that of insufficient remuneration, which affects a very important part of Spaniards, since, according to INE data, 30% of wage earners in our country, close to five million professionals, receive gross income of less than 1,336.6 euros per month in 12 payments. Which, after taxes and contributions, is less than a thousand euros per month.
