Not only hotels and restaurants suffer a flight of workers never seen in the sector. The store is also struggling to find enough employees, especially now that sales are up and many stores need to beef up their workforce. This has been observed by the companies of the Comertia family retail association, which brings together 62 chains in Catalonia with more than 4,000 establishments and 35,000 workers. 63% of its members say they have trouble finding staff.
The voice of alert is given in a context of global improvement of the activity. According to the latest Comertia barometer, the sales of its companies have grown by 8.6% this May compared to the same month of 2019, before the pandemic crisis that has shaken commerce and despite inflation. Last month they hired 300 people precisely to deal with the increase in sales and a third of them plan to hire new workers this June. If they find candidates.
“After the pandemic there are more people who think hard about working on weekends and with split schedules; and in the retail sector, the schedules condition a lot, because when there is more work it is on the weekend”, highlights David Sánchez, president of Comertia. In the business association they have also observed a change in habits in the younger population sectors, a group that has traditionally found a weekend or summer job in commerce, to supplement their income while studying. Now, they say, there are fewer young people willing to work on Saturdays and Sundays. In this sense, they underline that the commercial opening on Sundays that has begun this month has not generated more sales.
The problems to find employees occur in all commercial segments, with special incidence in the restoration.
The situation is repeated in hotel and local establishments in tourist areas. There is a lack of concierges, chambermaids, receptionists or waiters just the summer in which the sector hopes to recover from the fall of the covid. From the Ministry of Labor they recommended to the companies affected by the lack of personnel that they pay more to the workers, although from the consulted companies they maintain that it is not just a salary issue. The hours of these branches of activity, focused on service, drive away workers. Hotel groups have even suggested facilitating the hiring of Ukrainian refugees or immigrants to alleviate the difficulties.
All in all, tourism is leading the recovery of employment in Catalonia, which is supported by the classic sun and beach destinations. While the European Next Generation funds are trying to change the classic economic development model, the truth is that affiliation on the coast is already above the pre-pandemic level and the rest of Catalonia and Spain, indicate the latest analysis by BBVA Research.
