The added value of the digital sector in the Catalan economy reaches 10 billion euros.

BarcelonaThe net contribution or added value (GAV) of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector to the country's economy reached €9.955 billion between 2008 and 2024, double that of a decade ago, according to data from the Barometer of the Technology Sector in Catalonia prepared by the Technological Circle (Círculo Tecnológico) and with the support of the Generalitat (Catalan Government). Although the figures show that employment in the sector in Catalonia is growing above the European average (3.5%) and already represents 3.7% of Catalan workers, with 168,300 professionals, in the last quarter of 2024 there were still more than 1,800 unfilled positions. "We continue to grow, but we are not contributing enough talent," noted the president of the Technological Circle, Joan Ramon Barrera.

Overall, the number of digital companies has increased by 3.76% compared to the previous year, reaching 16,020 companies in Catalonia. As for the contribution of the Catalan technology industry's turnover to GDP, it now amounts to €27 billion. The industry also has a "multiplier effect": for every €100 of GVA in technology, an additional €58 are generated in other sectors, and for every 100 direct jobs, 48 are created in the rest of the economy. Furthermore, in the words of the Secretary of Telecommunications and Digital Transformation of the Generalitat, Albert Tort, "3 out of 4 companies in the sector confirm that their turnover increased from 2023 to 2024, and most expect growth." "We find ourselves in a situation of optimism for the sector, in a dynamic situation in which we must focus on promoting digital trends, such as AI, cybersecurity, and the cloud," he noted.

Lack of talent

The difficulties in finding qualified workers are a cross-cutting problem that recurs in every study on the digital sector, both in Catalonia and in Europe. In fact, 80 percent of the companies surveyed for the Barometer confirm this, and 33 percent of these consider the lack of talent to be "a cause for concern," Barrera stated. Among the most sought-after profiles are, above all, professionals in artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and cloud computing.

In this regard, the Secretary of Digital Policies of the Generalitat, Maria Galindo, recalled that the Government is promoting the National Pact for Digital Talent, "with the aim of multiplying talent by two, but at the same time seeking to make a match between supply and demand," he noted. "It's not just that we're not able to generate enough training positions to meet the training demand, but also that the technological gap is large and we're not meeting the demand that companies have," he asserted. "We need to move towards non-regulated training to better adapt to the needs of companies," Gali recalled. Regarding the slowdown in the hiring of more junior profiles due to the emergence of AI – which MWCapital already noted in its digital talent report last week – Galindo confirmed that "it has been detected that in the last year there was a slowdown in the hiring of more junior profiles due to the emergence of AI." This, he points out, "these companies are beginning to see that if they don't have these well-trained juniors, they won't have seniors later on." However, he recalled that it is "a sector that evolves so quickly that new jobs are emerging every day."