Why Spanish tech companies are beefing up their workforces while U.S. giants are laying off workers en masse
The wave of tech company layoffs began in 2022, reaching a figure of more than 150,000 according to layoffs.fyi. That number nearly doubled in January with a total of 75,912 laid off and looks set to continue to grow, as Meta has announced it will shed about 11,000 jobs in March.
Former employees of major brands such as. Philips, Dell, Zoom, Meta, Twitter, Microsoft, eBay, Yahoo or GitHub, among others.are quickly finding new positions in other technology companies. But that does not prevent there is great concern about the massive layoffs that are taking place. While this is happening in the world, the situation in Spain seems favorable.
The situation in Spain
According to a report by Scaleup Spain Network, a program that supports start-up companies, generated. some 850,000 jobs, equivalent to an increase of 60%.. On average, 94% of the scaleups stated that there were direct skilled jobs among the recruits.
Scaleups are companies that started as startups, but have the purpose of expanding. and reach new markets, new customers and innovate. Therefore, as they are newly created, it is to be expected that some of them will not survive, but Scaleup Spain Network is positive.
Antonio Iglesias, general director of Endeavor Spain, explains to D+I that we are facing “years of euphoria” for Spanish entrepreneurs and that, “although it is foreseeable that there will be layoffs, it will never be a situation comparable to that of the United States”.
But beyond the scaleups, there is also a promising future for specialists in the tech sector, as more jobs are on offer than there is demand. According to a report by DigitalES in the middle of last year, there were more than 120,000 unfilled tech vacancies. and Frank Moreno, an expert in intrapreneurship and technology talent pipeline, stated for 20BITS that. specialists did not cover “not even 25% of the current supply”.
Microsoft does not give up in Spain
While Microsoft lays off in the rest of the world, it continues to bet on technological talent in Spain, according to Alberto Granados, president of the local division. It should be noted that the firm three will have data centers in the country and that its plans are to to hire one hundred new people in Barcelona.
Granados recalled in a talk at Nueva Economía Fórum that the Artificial Intelligence hub in Barcelona had opened a year and a half ago, with 80 initial employees, and that his intention was to hire a hundred more. He also pointed out that in Barcelona they will be working with GPT3 and GPT4.
On the other hand, Microsoft’s Spanish data centers will continue to adjust to demand. In this way, the executive explained that they were going to “reprioritize certain areas and projects that are more strategic and have a greater impact on the end customer” and that the company’s situation will be “more strategic and with a greater impact on the end customer”. would not impact the construction of the three data centers “neither now nor in the future”.
These facilities will be in the Community of Madrid: In San Sebastián de los Reyes, Meco and Algete.. Granados comments that an analysis that has been done estimates that this project will offer a value of approximately 15,000 million additional euros, from 2022 to 2025, and around 50,000 additional jobs throughout the ecosystem.
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