Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011, with Spain in full crisis and record unemployment; the list of in-demand professions is based on data from early 2011, and the official list of hard-to-fill occupations changes every quarter.
A document drawn up by Spain’s State Public Employment Service lists the professions most in demand and with the biggest labour shortages, which means Spain tends to bring in these professionals from other countries. As we’ll see below, they are a very mixed bunch.
The most in-demand professions include those related to medicine, with a need for everything from general practitioners to other specialties such as:
- Anaesthesiology and resuscitation.
- Cardiology.
- Obstetrics and gynaecology.
- Paediatrics.
- Traumatology.
- Orthopaedic surgery.
Other professions where, depending on the autonomous region, the shortage can’t be filled are pharmacy and dental technicians.
Engineers, professional athletes and sports coaches are also in demand in Spain right now.
On the other hand, one of the fields that recruits most from abroad is the merchant navy, to fill jobs such as:
- Deck boatswain.
- Ship’s refrigeration technician.
- Ship’s cook.
- Ship’s purser.
- Coastal shipping mechanic.
- Marine mechanic and marine engineer.
As you can see, in the middle of the crisis and with unemployment in Spain at a record high, the positions needed in certain sectors can’t be filled, so we have to look abroad, and Spanish companies already have an agreement in place to speed up hiring staff from other countries.
Further reading
- The professions with the most future in the environment
- The professions with the most future in social services
- The most in-demand professions in economics and finance
- The 10 jobs of the future: nanomedic, avatar creator…
Featured image: Waldemar Jan, CC0 1.0, via Flickr.
