He ICT sector ended the previous year with Excellent results both in billing and employability. He average growth last year for this type of company reached 16.9%while the year-on-year growth in billing between December 2021 and December 2022 reached 11.4%.
This is one of the main conclusions of the monthly TIC Monitor barometer, a report prepared jointly by VASS and the Center for Economic Prediction CEPREDE and which also reaffirms the good recruitment figures of the sector. The demand for specialized talent shows a year-on-year increase of 7.2% in December 2022, as well as an increase in February 2023 of 41,822 social security affiliates in ICT service companies compared to the previous year.
“If we had doubts about the existence of a kind of digital bubble, the reality is that digital service companies continue to create jobs, at least in Spain”points out Antonio Rueda, director of VASS Research and head of TIC Monitor, although it has also been “noticed a slowdown in turnover per employee which, although it continues to advance positively by 4% over the last twelve months, the record is barely equivalent to half of what we appreciated in the previous installment. This slowdown is largely due to price containment in the sector”.
Increased employability
The previous edition of TIC Monitor raised the alarm regarding short-term job creation for the sector, since by then there were as many companies that expected to create net employment as there were those that expected to reduce their workforce. Fortunately, this situation has not lasted long, as the employability indicator has gone from a virtual standstill to reaching +23.4 points in one month, which on a -100/+100 scale would be equivalent to saying that 61.7% of ICT service entrepreneurs in Spain expect to increase their workforce in the short term.
“It is true that Spanish employability expectations are below the community average, but it must also be emphasized that their recovery has been more significant since in just one month the employment indicator in Spain has grown 17 times more than in the entire EU”says Antonio Rueda. In addition, the director of VASS Research and head of TIC Monitor highlights that “this data, together with the good business forecasts, confirm the strength of the Spanish ICT sector at a time of uncertainty”.
Not surprisingly, the latest edition of TIC Monitor reveals that Spanish ICT entrepreneurs are more optimistic than their European counterparts in the expectation of increasing activity in the next three months. The climate index, in this sense, stands at +30.9 points compared to +28.9 points in the EU, which would be equivalent to saying that 65.5% of businessmen in Spain hope to continue increasing its turnover in the short term.
Despite the good figures and expectations of the digital services sector in Spain, Antonio Rueda calls for prudence due to the socioeconomic context. “The uncertainties have not ceased, but, on the contrary, we see how new episodes are released.” Central bank monetary tightening is a bad traveling companion in these mistrustful environments, so it’s important that big companies don’t chill their IT investments.”.
