Prudence is the dominant note in the contracting prospects of Spanish companies for 2023, as shown by the Employment Projection Study from ManpowerGroup for the months of January through March 2023.
Managers continue to face a uncertain economic scenario and inflationary, which translates into a job market that is more reluctant to hiring and, as a result, in a net forecast for the first three months of the year of 3%.
This represents an increase of one point compared to the previous quarter, but also a drop of 31 points compared to the start of 2022, which places Spain with the largest year-on-year decrease recorded among the 41 markets analyzed. In addition, at a global level, Spain repeats itself as the fourth country with the worst forecasts, 20 points below the international average 23%.
In the analysis by industry, which this quarter has seen the categorization revised in order to offer a clearer picture, the sector of energy and supplies, which handles the worst forecasts, with a net result of -16%, which would mean job destruction. On the other side of the scale is one more quarter ITEMwhich leads hiring expectations with an estimate of 8%.
“The Spanish employment market is especially sensitive to uncertainty: employers in our country are among the most cautious in Europe again in the first quarter of 2023 (only one in four plans to expand teams, compared to 45% in France or 41% from Portugal)”, comments Francisco Ribeiro, country manager of ManpowerGroup, who stresses that “This confirms two trends: on the one hand, that employers are looking for flexible hiring alternatives to maintain their productivity levels. And on the other, the opportunity to requalify professionals, in order to cover the new positions in the sectors that generate net employment”.
ICT sector, a clear engine for job creation
Along with technology, other sectors that expect positive behavior are transport, logistics and automotive (5%), financial and real estate (4%), health and pharmacy (3%) and consumer goods and services (2%).
Other sectors (which includes public services and administrations; education; primary sector; and third sector) remains flat (0%). And, on the negative side, in addition to energy and supplies, there are industry Y communication servicesboth with -2%.
As for the quarter-on-quarter evolution, despite presenting the most optimistic forecasts, the technology sector is the one that falls the most compared to the previous quarter, dropping 17 points. Health and pharmacy also fell, leaving 15. On the other hand, the industrial sector is the one that grows the most, recovering 10 points. It is followed, with eight points, by financial and real estate.
As Francisco Ribeiro continues: “The data that we present today makes last year’s economic forecasts tangible in the 2023 employment market. Companies and professionals must navigate in this context, where sectors and regions behave very differently in a short space of time. Given this, companies have to rethink how to attract, retain and develop talent from now on, taking into account a multitude of factors such as new trends in the world of employment, regulatory and economic changes, inflation and depreciation of wages. , among others”.
