SPAIN AT ITS BEST - AUGUST ON GANDIA BEACH
Did you see an interesting article in El Pais a while ago about working in Spain? The article is fascinating because it illustrates an extraordinary problem and one that you may not necessarily appreciate, least of all if you are thinking of coming to Spain to work.
In short, Spain has an ‘over qualified’ workforce – with 31% of Spaniards working in Spain at jobs below their educational level! To place this into context the average figure is 19% for all the rest of the 27 countries in the EU.
Perhaps more worrying, if you are a foreigner considering working in Spain, is the fact that a whopping 58% of foreigners working in Spain are in jobs below their educational level!
What does this all mean?
Well, firstly it means that you cannot come to Spain proudly waving your qualifications and expect a Spanish worker to be overly-impressed. He probably has the same (or better) qualifications as you and is likely to be doing a job that is well below his own proper ‘pay scale’. So, if you want to work in Spain (and be employed) you should make sure that you bring to the ‘table’ something well beyond just good paper qualifications.
The scary part about the El Pais article is that the report on work qualifications by Eurostat uses figures collected three years ago in 2008! So, the report’s findings are already massively out of date. Indeed, I suspect the disparity now between those having jobs in Spain that equate to their qualifications is probably far, far greater than in 2008. With unemployment in Spain at 22% people have to take any job available with little or no thought as to how suitable it is to their qualifications.
Of course, there is something terribly tragic about being over qualified and not being able to find a suitable job, particularly for those who have studied long years to obtain demanding qualifications. This must be heart breaking and enough to make anyone a social revolutionary.
Interestingly, one of the problems that Spain has (apart from a brutal economic recession!) is that the high qualifications of the Spanish population have exceeded what was ever on offer within the Spanish economy – driven, as it was, by the construction industry. The latter, of course, is a low qualification industry and does not (and did not) need bright, highly qualified people.
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So, unfortunately, even in 2008, Spain had little to offer its well educated population, having not invested strategically, during the long boom years, in hi-tech industries or industries consistent with the new, highly qualified workforce. This was a tragedy and, I fear, typically short sighted – with the lunatic property based ‘gold rush’ blinding the Spanish state to the necessity to build Spain’s future on more solid foundations. Indeed, in many ways Spain resembled a Middle East country running short on oil that never invested in a future not oil based…
On a personal basis, the Eurostat report accurately portrays my own experience living here in Spain. Almost every Spaniard I know is dazzlingly well qualified. Master’s degrees are ‘ten a penny’ and almost everyone I know, not in work, is studying for a Master’s or, often, another Master’s.
Indeed, at present, jobs in Spain are so scarce that many Spaniards think that the best use of their time is to gain further qualifications, which is sensible. However, few young Spaniards that I know are not desperately worried about how that are going to obtain work experience and several that I know have fallen into the trap of being qualified for a job abroad, for example – but failing to get it for lack of experience. A very vicious and scary circle, that is hard to break.
What does the future hold for those wanting (or needing) to work in Spain?
Well, it is going to be tough if you want to be employed – as the competition for available jobs in Spain is going to be ferocious for a long time to come. Equally, I think it is fair to say that if you are a foreigner (of any nationality) seeking work in Spain that you should recognise that you will also, naturally be ‘second in line’ to a similarly qualified Spaniard.
The answer?
Well, I suspect that lies in being self-employed and ensuring that you have independence from the conventional workforce. That, of course, is easier said than done but touches upon a recent book (The Laptop Entrepreneur) that I have co-authored and that has just been published. The reality, accelerated by this dreadful economic crisis, is that long term, stable employment is probably now a feature of the past – whether in Spain or elsewhere. So, in these difficult (and possibly revolutionary for the workplace) times, you have to think laterally…
Nick Snelling – Culture Spain
FURTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION ABOUT WORKING IN SPAIN
The Laptop Entepreneur – the book that shows you how to make a living using the Internet
Spanish products and working with the Spanish
Work in Spain and the Spanish economy