Barcelona’s digital ecosystem is attracting more talent from abroad than ever before. A third of the tech professionals working in the city come from other cities. Specifically, they come from London (11%), Madrid (10%), Buenos Aires (3%), São Paulo (2%) and Valencia (2%), among other cities.
It’s data from the new report digital talent overview, Posted yesterday by Barcelona Digital Talent. According to this merged body of Mobile World Capital, the trend has accelerated after overcoming the mobility restrictions imposed by the pandemic. In fact, half of the jobs created in Barcelona during 2021 – about 4,700 – actually come from outside the Catalan capital, compared to 1,700 in 2020 or 4,000 in 2019. With this data on the table, 2021 was the most professional year out of the Catalan capital. Out of town, although weight has remained practically stable compared to the previous year as a percentage.
The gender gap persists: Only three out of ten tech workers are women
The report highlights that the most imported profiles from outside the city were cyber security (40%) and application development (40%), due to shortages and increased demand that started in the previous year.
The report – which aggregates data from other sources such as Idescat, Eurostat or the consulting firm Talent.up – also highlights that 10,500 new digital jobs were created in 2021, reaching nearly 100,000 in Catalonia as a whole. This represents a growth of 12% over the previous year. Within the community, Barcelona continues to attract the vast majority of talent (95%), followed by Tarragona, Girona and Lleida.
As this newspaper has already published, the demand for technology professionals continued to be tense in 2021. For each offer published, there were only 15 candidates available, while in the rest of the economy the usual thing is the availability of 60 specialists per offer.
Another conclusion of the report is the persistence of the gender gap in this sector. In Europe as a whole, barely two out of ten professionals are women. In Spain, the difference is not so clear, as three out of ten digital workers in both Madrid and Barcelona are women. The report highlights developments in the UX/UI design discipline, where parity has been achieved in the Catalan city.
According to Jordi Arrufí, Director of Barcelona Digital Talent, one of the best ways to reduce the gender gap and increase the number of professionals is to enhance training. “It is necessary to promote the ICT profession in schools and facilitate the training of people with other paths through ICT courses. refine The manager said yesterday. The Spanish academic offer is not among the best in Europe. The United Kingdom and Switzerland are the two countries with universities of reference. Here, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya is the most valuable university, followed by Universitad Politécnica de Madrid, Universitat de Barcelona and Carlos III, in Madrid.
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