Longer hiring periods ease the seasonality of the Spanish labor market in 2024
Despite Spain’s job market still being seasonal, the trend towards longer periods of employment is helping level out traditional peak periods. This is one of the findings of the InfoJobs-Esade report, Estado del mercado laboral español (Spain’s Job Market in 2024), according to which the biggest recruitment period in 2024 occurred in October and November, to cater for the retail campaign running from Black Friday to Christmas and the sales. This report, based on the vacancies posted on InfoJobs last year (an average of 200,000 a month) confirms that the second largest recruitment period ran from April to August, key months for tourism and hospitality during the Easter and summer period. The troughs in vacancies occurred in the first part of the year in August and, particularly, in December.
In 2024, InfoJobs handled some 2.4 million vacancies overall (down 3% on 2023 figures) and 4 million applicants who signed up for more than 128 million job offers. One of the categories with the most vacancies is Purchasing, Logistics and Warehousing, with an increase of 9% in line with the growth of the logistics and transport sector, whilst the average salary of vacancies posted on this platform climbed 3.1% (more than €800), reflecting the upward trend over the last 3 years particularly in the tech industry, which continues to offer the highest salary (€34,307) despite a drop in vacancies.
“This year’s survey reveals the five key areas that are shaping job supply and demand – technology, caregiving, sustainability, tourism and logistics – and directly impacting the evolution of recruitment and the need to adapt professional skills to a changing landscape,” said Mónica Pérez, Director of Communication and Surveys at InfoJobs.
Anna Ginès, professor at Esade Law School and director of the Esade Institute for Labor Studies, added, “In 2024, Spain’s job market grew beyond all expectations to 21.86 million persons in employment. What’s more, this increase was not to the detriment of qualifications: the average level of education has improved compared to other years."
Madrid and Catalonia: the regions with the most vacancies on InfoJobs
At the regional level, Madrid, with 26% of all vacancies, and Catalonia, with 21%, are once again Spain’s autonomous regions with the most vacancies on InfoJobs, followed by Andalusia (12%) and the Region of Valencia (8% of the total). Apart from Madrid, all these regions had fewer vacancies on InfoJobs than in 2023.
As regards the salaries, the regions presenting the highest rate of salary offers are the Basque Country and Navarra, with €28,402 and €28,346 respectively, followed by Madrid, with €28,075, and Andalusia, €28,048.
