EAE News
-
Sala de prensa
The higher your level of studies, the lower the unemployment rate”.
27 de October de 2020
Does doing a Master boost your prospects of getting a job? Do people with a higher education qualification really have more opportunities than people with only a high school education? Well, while there is no single recipe for success in the complex world of employability, the recent report by Dr. Magalí Riera Roca, entitled, “Employability of the Qualified Workforce”, reveals that not only is it true that the higher your level of studies, the lower the unemployment rate, but also that the higher the level of studies, the greater the equality of professional opportunities between men and women.
Recently published and drafted based on the data of the Strategic Research Center (SRC), the report focuses on analysing the employability of the qualified workforce at both a European and Spanish level, as well as by Autonomous Community. To achieve this, the report compares the employability rates of the workforces with primary and secondary studies, taking into account various indicators such as the activity, employment and unemployment rates.
Are you ready to discover the employment status of people with postgraduate studies in Spain? Let’s find out.
The Qualified Workforce en Spain:
““The highest activity rate is among people with a higher education qualification, although it has dropped slightly”,
As we can see in the table, the highest activity rate in Spain over the last three years is among the workforce with a higher education qualification, followed by the workforce with a high school education with a vocational focus. However, the figures show that, at the start of 2020, the activity rate of people with higher qualifications has started to fall slightly.
It should be noted that the activity rate is a very important variable for the economy. It is calculated as difference between the active workforce (personas working or actively looking for work) and the population of working age (16 to 65).
Click here to download the full report.
“In Spain, the employment rate among the female workforce with a higher education qualification is 10 percentage points higher than their male counterparts”.
In contrast, the employment rate is the percentage of the active workforce currently employed.
As revealed by the data in the report, “Employability of the Qualified Workforce”, in Spain, the employment rate among the female workforce with a higher education qualification is 10 percentage points higher than their male counterparts. This means that, over the last three year, the percentage of women with a higher education qualification who are employed has grown significantly.
““The unemployment rate of the workforce with higher studies in Spain remains stable at under 9%”
According to the report, 1 out of 3 people over 16 years old in Spain, has a higher education. Over the last 3 years, the unemployment rate among this part of the workforce has fallen steadily to reach 8.61% at the end of last year. Moreover, the gender gap seems to be falling.
This means that the number of people with a higher education who are not employed has decreased consistently since 2018. However, they have not been unscathed by the impact of the pandemic and, in 2020, the unemployment rate has risen.
The Qualified Workforce and the Autonomous Communities
The Basque Country: the Community with the highest proportion of the workforce with a higher education
The data analysed in the report reveal that the Autonomous Communities with the greatest qualified workforce are: 1) the Basque Country (40%); 2) Madrid (39.7%) and Navarra (36.2%). At the other end of the scale, the lowest rates are in Ceuta (19.9%), Extremadura (20,5%) and Castilla-La Mancha (23.5%).
During the pandemic, all the Autonomous Communities have reported a rise in the unemployment rate among the qualified workforce, except Catalonia, where it has decreased by three and a half points.
“The Community of Madrid has the highest rate of women with a higher education”. .
Focusing on the perspective of the different sexes, it can be observed that Madrid is the Autonomous Community with the largest female qualified workforce. Meanwhile, the Basque Country is the community with the largest male qualified workforce. These are followed by Asturias, Catalonia and Cantabria, as the communities with the largest qualified workforces among both sexes.Asturias, Catalonia and Cantabria, as the communities with the largest qualified workforces among both sexes.
Post-Covid 19 Profiles
Without a doubt, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the economy and, therefore, on all aspects of employability. As a result, over the next few years, as well as profiles specializing in digital transformation, healthcare workers will also be in great demand.
As the report emphasizes, now more than ever, change and transformation have become essential at a business level. Therefore, soft skills and everything related to change management will be highly valued from now onwards.
“The proportion of the workforce that gets a higher education is constantly growing, at all levels: Bachelor Degrees, Masters and PhDs”, concluded Dr. Magalí Riera Roca. “Education, training and technical knowledge are important, but now it is essential to have another type of skills and competences. It is no longer just a recommendation but rather a requirement, as has become more evident than ever before over the last few months”.