Immigrants held two out of three new jobs in 2006

PALMA
ALMOST half (48.9 percent) of foreigners who seek employment in Spain through Adecco are young people aged between 26 and 35, according to the immigrant report 2006 done by this company.

The average age of the immigrant continues to be five years more than the average age of Spaniards contracted by Adecco, a situation which the company attributes to the time needed by foreigners to move from their countries of origin.

Spain, which in the past was a country of emigrants, has become (since its entry into the European Union) a country of reception to the point where it is now the main immigrant destination in Europe.

In 2006 two out of every three new jobs created in Spain were filled by immigrants, a group which represents 13.9 percent of the total workers in the country. In Adecco's case, immigrants represent 20 percent of the company's more than 160'000 employees.

The foreigners contracted by Adecco has risen more than seven percentage points from 2004 to 2006, and is now 19.45 percent. According to the company, these figures show the role which temping companies are playing as intermediaries between jobs and workers in the labour market.

Adecco explained in the report that the near full employment situation in Spain is starting to cause a shortage of qualified people in areas such as computer technology, the health sector, industry and the professions.

This is causing companies to look for these professionals in other countries. The company last year started a programme, entitled “immigrant programme” through which they contracted people in their country of origin. The people who they most contracted in their country of origin were analyst/programmers, electrical engineers, doctors, nurses, auxiliary and geriatric nurses, amongst others.

But Adecco also actively participates in the contracting of immigrants who already live in Spain. Within the services sector, the people most contracted by this company are waiters, cooks, telephone operators and shop assistants.

The administrative jobs which most immigrants occupy are auxiliaries, clerks, receptionists and secretaries.
In general, the services sector is the one which gives most employment to foreigners, accounting for almost half of the contracts made by Adecco.