At the end of the last term, the labor market forecasts for Santa Cruz They were not exactly rosy, with the estimate of exceeding 30,000 unemployed. Four years later, and with a pandemic involved, not only has that figure not been exceeded, but the year ends below 21,000 unemployed and with a record number of Social Security contributors, which reaches 119,530,” the best of the historical sequence” of the capital.
Alfonso Cabello, councilor delegate of the Santa Cruz Development Society, highlights results that, in his opinion, are proof of the driving capacity of the capital’s economy. Despite the good data for this 2022, the mayor expresses his concern for the first months of 2023, in which, he warns, the general rise in costs can have a direct impact on the labor market.
-The evolution of the labor market in Santa Cruz after the pandemic is being very positive. What do you think it is due to?
“Santa Cruz de Tenerife currently has 119,530 Social Security contributors, it is the best figure in our entire historical sequence, which in this case starts in 2010, therefore it is very good news. The second piece of good news is that for the second consecutive month we are below 21,000 unemployed, and another fact that is important is that this year, 117,000 contracts will be signed, which is much higher than the two previous years, and only surpassed by 2018. Although for us this figure is much better than that of 2018, because the labor reform comes into play that has allowed 37% of contracts to be permanent, compared to 40% of hourly contracts that are registered in 2018”.
-You mention the labor reform, in a market like Santa Cruz where the service sector predominates. Have you come to improve conditions?
“It has come to significantly improve conditions, so there is a first positive reading. But it is true that another of the important sectors in Santa Cruz, that of construction, what the labor reform has done is alter the statistics, since they have changed the usual work and service, for an indefinite duration whose duration is set by the work in which you are”.
-You affirm that the construction sector is also important for Santa Cruz, to what extent?
“25% of the companies in Tenerife are in Santa Cruz, and many of them are large companies. I mean that although they carry out their activity in other parts, their administrative headquarters are in the capital, so for statistical purposes it also affects us”.
-So those good data are also influenced by that detail…
“Not only. The average contracting and evolution of the number of contracts is above the rest of the averages for the island’s municipality. We have 40% of all the contracts on the Island, so, although we concentrate 25% of the companies, this figure is not justified only by the size of the companies. So the economic weight of the municipality acts as a driving force for the rest of the Island, in such a way that we concentrate practically four out of every 10 jobs on the entire Island”.
-Regarding the profile of the unemployed, what data does the City Council have?
“34.2% of the unemployed are over 45 years of age and have been unemployed for more than a year. The second largest group is under 30 without professional experience, and by sex, 54% are women”.
-Regarding the two groups with the most difficulties that you point out, what actions can be implemented?
“Unfortunately, we have more potential to develop in young people without professional experience than in the group of those over 45 years of age. In a structural way, we work with the different calls that are being produced by the Government of the Canary Islands or the Cabildo, as well as with the Social Employment Plan, through agreements to tackle the most numerous block. With regard to the youngest, I firmly believe in the PFAES (Training Programs in Alternation with Employment), they are the ones on which I believe that Santa Cruz has to make a firm commitment to develop its own pilot projects for the period 2023-2024 ”.
-What do you mean?
“To design training and employment programs for those young people without professional experience who, by applying certain skills in the field of technology, services, languages or public relations, seem to have high insertion skills.”
-And what is the level of training of the unemployed chicharreros?
“Half of the chicharreros enrolled in the SCE have a maximum education of Primary or less. 7.5% are university students and 6.4% have vocational training. In this context, I believe that it is necessary for the educational system to increase the interaction between students and the company in search of the greatest mutual benefit. As some studies point out, there is a lack of qualified labor necessary to cover the demand required by companies”.
-Does it mean that the companies are the ones that mark the training?
“What cannot be explained in the current context is that we have some 2,300 people identified in the SCE as waiters, and that we find bars, restaurants and waiters looking for waiters every day. I do not have access to the disaggregated information from the SCE to know the real training of these people as waiters, so what is happening is that there is a clear gap between the applicant and the needs of the sector, and not only in Santa Cruz. Because, for example, to work as a waiter in Santa Cruz, perhaps knowing English or German is the third of the employer’s needs, while in the south it would surely be the first. That is why I say that we have to carry out specific pilot projects for Santa Cruz”.
-As which?
“For example, with Ashotel, and I insist, not only in Santa Cruz, but throughout the province, a specific project can be carried out jointly with the City Council to diagnose, generate and identify groups that, given certain key skills, are capable of quick insert.
–And how do you do that?
“It is a field in which we have to identify the most qualified, which will be those who meet a series of requirements that guarantee, so to speak, the success of the project. What the pilot project does is generate a selection system, which is not based on age, nor by number of years unemployed, but rather has to do with other qualities, something like an attitude towards life. Right now we are identifying groups and sectors willing to invest financially together with the City Council in the design of specific training itineraries, even with a commitment to insertion, for sectors such as the hotel industry or in the technology sector, where the final selection The company does it.”
-And what about the long-term unemployed?
“With them we have to continue working insistently. The problem we find in this group is that, when we open the range and say over 45, a 60-year-old is not the same as a 45-year-old, nor is the training they have or the sector the same. And I think that is the error of the policies that are being designed on many occasions from the public administrations that have the competition. He is going to projects that are coffee for everyone. I believe that it is necessary to dismantle this model, as well as that of vocational training itineraries, in order to rebuild it almost from scratch, inverting the pyramid of leadership, where the companies are first, then the municipalities, and then the entities furthest from the reality of the situation. . To the extent that the rules continue to be designed from a distance and not from real reconnaissance of the terrain, we are going to continue to find people who cannot read and write who are in extraordinary social employment plans with people with higher titles, pulling weeds in the same garden This is the system that should be changed, but as long as it is, it will be welcome and we will continue to attend the calls”.
-What are the forecasts for 2023?
“We are very concerned with the start of 2023, in fact the forecast that we have is that the number of contracts will drop and unemployment will rise, as a result of the tremendous uncertainty for the first quarter of the year. Companies are reluctant to enter into new contracts due to uncertainty. In addition, in the month of January there will be an update of rates”.
Can you be more precise?
“SMEs and freelancers who do not have the capacity to control daily costs of how inputs vary, at the end of the year adjust by seeing what they have lost or gained. As inflation has been skyrocketing, the adjustments they have not made will lead them to update rates in the first months of the year as a result of inflation.
-And why haven’t they made the adjustment before?
“Until now that update has been held up by fears of the post-pandemic recession. What keeps us with a certain degree of optimism within uncertainty are the good prospects for the tourism sector in the autonomous community in general and in Santa Cruz in particular, but all the sources of analysis that we have tell us that things are complicated.” .
-Given this situation, what do you demand from the Government of the Canary Islands, which is the one that has the competencies in employment?
“Right now we are identifying groups and sectors willing to invest financially together with the City Council in the design of specific training itineraries, even with a commitment to insertion, for sectors such as the hotel industry or in the technology sector, where the selection In the end, the company does it”
