Since 2016, the Fundació Impulsa, which promotes Balearic competitiveness and productivity, has been evaluating imbalances in the islands’ labour market.
Its latest findings indicate that there are more underqualified workers in the Balearics than anywhere else in Spain – 3.1 out of ten. Underqualification is a factor across the board but is especially pronounced in the likes of the energy industry, agriculture and waste management.
Aina Ripoll, the director of the foundation’s Economic Intelligence Unit, points out that there are various issues that lead to labour market imbalances but that one of the main causes is a shortage of workers with vocational training and baccalaureate qualifications. She describes this as the middle section of the market. If everyone in the Balearics with these qualifications worked, only 58% of jobs requiring these qualifications would actually be covered.
In recent years, business has been warning about the lack of specialist training and education for various types of employment, such as carpenters and electricians.
Xisca Garí, spokesperson for the UGT union in the Balearics, believes that this is largely due to an economic model predominantly focused on services and which encourages early school leaving. But he adds that better studies should result in better salaries and working conditions. “This is not usually the case.”
Jordi Mora, president of the Pimem federation of small business associations argues that the problem isn’t that companies hire underqualified workers. “We have to have a much broader vision. In the Balearics we have two strategic problems: lack of housing and school dropout. This means that we have workers with little or low qualifications. Companies need a lot of skilled and unskilled labour. They demand and hire highly qualified personnel but there is a lack of workers. It is an historical and endemic problem that we all have to solve.”