The sector of ICT services in Spain continues to grow, with record figures both in billing and hiring, a situation that contrasts with the employment and valuation adjustments that affect global technology giants.
However, although the short-term expectation of turnover continues to be one of growth for 74.7% of digital service companies in Spain, you perceive a cooling in terms of net job creation: there are as many companies that expect an increase in staff as there are those that fear a contraction until the month of April.
This is one of the main conclusions of the monthly barometer ICT Monitor, Prepared jointly by VASS and the Center for Economic Prediction Ceprede. A report that in its second installment of the year 2023 highlights the optimism of businessmen regarding the growth of the activity, thus placing the business climate indicator at +49.4 points (on a scale -100/+100). A situation that contrasts with the caution regarding job creation expectations, whose indicator went from +45.5 points in the previous edition of the report to a situation of practically neutrality (+1).
According to Antonio Rueda, director of VASS Research and head of TIC Monitor, this dissonance between billing and employability “It is not in international uncertainty, since the EU average predicts an opposite situation with more hiring (+31.2 points), but less turnover (+26.9 points)”. The key, according to Rueda, “lies in the fact that the Spanish companies in the sector see themselves as sufficiently armed with personnel to attend to the portfolio of activity in the short term. And given the difficulty in finding specialists with the right skills, the growing turnover and the rise in salaries, it seems that many companies prefer to take a breather and wait for the outlook to clear up before increasing their workforce”.
The positive evolution of the turnover ratio per employee, which in the last 12 months has grown at a rate close to 10%, sets this caution in a positive context. “These figures also represent a comfortable productivity cushion for digital service companies in Spain”Rueda sentence.
Good employability and billing to close 2022
These forecasts, generally more moderate than in previous editions of the TIC Monitor, contrast with the good figures collected throughout the year 2022 which, according to the records of this barometer, seems to close very positively, both in terms of turnover and employability.
Thus, the latest edition of TIC Monitor indicates that in November last year the average turnover of digital companies in Spain increased by 16.1% year-on-year. In all of 2022 the average growth would be 17.9%, while discounting the effect of the rise in prices, growth in real terms in the sector would remain at 14.6% throughout last year. It almost triples the performance of the Spanish economy.
It should also be noted that the possible relaxation of the hiring rate in the coming months is not yet reflected in the employability registered at the end of last year. So much so, that the demand for specialized talent in November 2022 registered a year-on-year increase of 7.2%.
“We have room to trust the stability of the Spanish technology sector, since everything indicates that the end of the year 2022 will be very positive. This scenario provides a solid base with which to face all the possible risks and uncertainties that the year 2023 could bring us”, says Antonio Rueda.
