Why are there more than 5,000 job vacancies despite the high unemployment rate in the Basque Country?

Euskaraz irakurri: Zergatik daude 5,000 lanpostu huts baino gehiago Euskadin langabe kopuru handia izan aren?

In the Basque Country there are companies that have real difficulties in finding suitable professional profiles to cover the jobs they have, despite having unemployment of more than 8%. The latest data speaks of 5238 vacanciesa 0.5% of unfilled positions in the Basque Country in the second quarter of 2022, according to information from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The number of vacancies in Spain reached a record of 145,053 at the end of the second quarter of the year, a number of unfilled jobs that had not been recorded since the INE began to count them.

Why are there positions that are not filled? What are those profiles that remain vacant? What will happen in the future? EITB Media has spoken with the head of Lanbide’s Technical Office, javier ramosthe training director of the Bilbao Chamber of Commerce, santiago lopezand the economist Endika Alabort.

All of them agree that there are vacancies, and that if we look at the historical series, they have always existed, even in times of crisis. Therefore, it is not a widespread problem, but it is important to look to the future, because this situation of imbalance between supply and demand is increasingly occurring.

Historical chart of the number of vacancies since 2013. Source: INE.

In Spain, more than half of the companies that have sought candidates for jobs in the last year have had difficulties finding new workers, especially among qualified jobs (53.3%) and highly qualified ( 52.8%), according to the report “In which sectors are there no workers?”, prepared by Randstad and the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises, known as CEPYME.

The lack of labor affects all sectors, from agriculture to industry, through construction and services. They are jobs related to construction, hospitality, hairdressing, telemarketing, domestic employment, tourism, dependents, highly qualified profiles, highly technical or technological positions, etc. In the Basque Country, 40.6% of employment is highly qualified.

Lin the absence of profiles It is due to a significant imbalance in which several problems converge: lack of training, working conditions (salaries, mainly), low employment rate, generational change or the aging of the population.

Experts agree that it is a temporary problem that could be structural if measures are not taken.

Lanbide will analyze with nearly 10,000 companies what are the main reasons why they have difficulties finding the right professional profiles, that is, what are their personnel needs to help them with coverage, offer them training and anticipate that demand.