Digital service companies in Spain continue to be a true engine of employability, despite the current situation of uncertainty that all professional sectors are experiencing. Proof of this is that Job creation in the Spanish ICT sector grew by 6.5% in year-on-year terms (between February 2022 and February 2023). Social Security affiliates exceeded 450,000 for the first time in April of this year.
This is one of the main conclusions of the monthly TIC Monitor barometer, a report prepared jointly by VASS and the CEPREDE Economic Prediction Center, which also highlights the increase of 37,348 employees in the digital services sector, placing the level of affiliation at all-time highs.
The solid trend in job creation is supported by the stable turnover of ICT companies in Spain, whose turnover grows at an interannual rate of +11.3% between February 2023 and February 2022. This is a slight adjustment compared to the final record of last month (+13.9%) but this value “it is still installed in the double digit. The trend growth of billing in twelve months stands at +16.3%”it states Antonio Ruedadirector of VASS Research and head of TIC Monitor.
In this sense, Rueda qualifies that the business figures of the sector “They are not experiencing a contraction but a slowdown in growth due to the fact that the rise in interest rates and costs affect the investment and innovation strategies in which the digital transformation is framed”.
However, this slowdown does not penalize, for the moment, to the short-term expectations of companies. What’s more, companies are optimistic about their situation in the near future, in terms of both turnover and employability.
Thus, the business climate index improves notably for the next three months, going from +45 points in the last edition of the TIC Monitor at +62 points, also doubling the EU record (+29.1 points). This would be equivalent to saying that 81% of digital companies in Spain hope to continue increasing their volume of activity in the next three months.
Employment creation
In terms of job creation, the indicator grew again for the third consecutive month to +47.7 points, which on a -100/+100 scale is equivalent to saying that almost 74% of Spanish ICT entrepreneurs trust to increase staff, at least in the short term. In addition, this is the best employability record in TIC Monitor since October 2022.
“Despite the prevailing optimism, this is not the time for euphoria either”points out Antonio Rueda, because “European Commission surveys confirm that 90% of the companies in the sector claim to have sufficient response capacity in the face of increases in demand, with which we could consider that robust increases in employment are not expected, unless the situation clears up radically. ”.
