There is practically no story about the future of our economy that does not emphasize the need for business activities and jobs with more added value, which links well with the will of the Generalitat to promote quality employment. And so, what jobs have been the most dynamic in the pre- and post-covid phase?
The Labor Market and Productive Model Observatory provides information on 480 jobs on the number of contracts, people hired and other indicators from which it produces a synthetic index, which classifies the best and worst positioned jobs in the labor market. I have focused on two small segments that I think are illustrative of this market: the jobs that add up to a greater number of contracts and those that have a higher synthetic index. If you want, groups of quantity and quality.
In 2021, nearly 2.8 million employment contracts were signed in Catalonia (418,000 of which were permanent and 2,354,000 temporary), with 1,537,000 people hired. Although it was improved compared to 2020, we are halfway to the 3.3 million contracts signed in 2019.
In the three years considered, the ten jobs with the highest synthetic index are mostly technical (engineers, analysts, programmers, database specialists), and are repeated from one year to the next. Despite occupational excellence, the number of contracts for these 10 jobs in 2021 was 25,300, and the number of people hired was 23,600, relatively small figures.
A very different thing results from observing the ten jobs with the highest number of contracts, which in 2021 added a million contracts and 484,000 people hired. At the forefront, the four jobs with the highest figures are laborers in manufacturing industries, waiters, store and warehouse salespeople, and cleaning staff, who add up to 852,000 contracts (31% of the total) and 393,000 people hired ( 26% of the total). It is significant that in 2019 and 2020 these four jobs also occupied the first four places in number of contracts. The other jobs with the highest number of contracts that repeat on the podium of the top ten are recreational activities monitors, freight transport laborers, hospital nursing assistants, public service administrative staff, non-specialized nurses and farm laborers.
Thus, in the last three years, while only 0.2%-0.4% of the contracts in Catalonia corresponded to the ten best-ranked jobs, there were four jobs that generated 25%-27% of the total of contracts. Occupational profiles, radically different. This is where we are, and these are the ratios between the desired and the actual.
Modest Guinjoan is an economist
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