Ficosa workers begin an indefinite strike in protest of the dismissals planned by the company. This Thursday, union representatives and the company met to renegotiate the impacts, and the number of dismissals was reduced from the initial 172 to 113. Specifically, the reduction was made through two channels: on one hand, the automotive components company agreed to transform the impacts in the engineering department into an ERTO (Temporary Employment Regulation File) of 18 months for 38 workers. And, on the other hand, of the 125 dismissals planned for the production plant, the figure has been reduced to 113.

As Pedro Sánchez announced at the end of last year, the Spanish government has set the goal that, by 2035, no more combustion vehicles will be sold. To achieve this, the head of the executive presented the Auto Spain 2030 Plan, also called the Auto+ plan, which, through 25 measures comprised in five pillars, aims to boost innovation in the automotive industry in Spanish territory. This Thursday, at an event held at Casa Seat in Barcelona, the sector presented the opportunities that the plan can create in Catalonia. "We have a historic opportunity to lead the new era of mobility," assured the CEO of Seat and Cupra, Markus Haupt.

It was planned that this Wednesday morning the future of the historic Barcelona industrial company Serra Soldadura would reach a turning point. After Aernnova – owner of the company since 2008 – filed for voluntary liquidation bankruptcy to dissolve Serra Soldadura, this Wednesday the auction of the two companies that form it was scheduled. However, as union sources explain to ARA, the auction has been declared void after no potential buyer has come forward. "We didn't expect this," explain CGT sources, which holds the union majority in the company.

One in four Catalan workers are exposed to the implementation of artificial intelligence. Specifically, a study by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce details that 26.5% of employed individuals have medium or high exposure, while 29% of workers would not experience any impact from the technology. By gender, women also present a higher percentage of exposure at all ages, and the gap is even more pronounced between those aged 35-44 and those aged 45-54, where 22.6% and 23.8%, respectively, could be highly affected. It should be noted that the study's exposure level does not solely measure the risk of substitution, but also the potential for task transformation.

In recent years, the role of immigration has been placed right at the center of the country's social debate. And, in economic terms, arguments for and against have suggested that it both enriches and impoverishes us. But, really, what are the jobs that immigrants hold in Catalonia? What type of foreigner has more weight in each sector? This year's extraordinary regulation has amplified the debate on whether demographic growth will or will not be sustainable in the long term. For now, a large part of the business community has not hesitated to position itself in favor, seeing foreign talent as the best way to fill the gaps in the Catalan labor market.

The real estate company Tecnotramit, specializing in managing assets for large holders and investment funds, plans to enter bankruptcy proceedings next week, according to union sources. The company, which at the beginning of the year had a workforce of around 860 employees, communicated the new scenario to labor representatives this Tuesday. The situation has accelerated after it came to light in March that the company allegedly improperly withheld funds from individuals, leading to the withdrawal of its main clients, such as Banco Sabadell, CaixaBank, and Bankinter.

Nissan specifies the impact of the employment regulation file (ERE) it will implement in Catalonia. Specifically, as confirmed to ARA by union sources, the Japanese firm will dismiss 211 workers at its centers in the Zona Franca and El Prat, where it has two plants: the spare parts center and the flexible areas center. Currently, Nissan employs 569 people in Catalonia. The company alleged two weeks ago that the dismissals were due to organizational and productive reasons.

Indra presents the plan to boost its role in Catalonia. The defense and security company has staged its commitment to the territory with an event organized at the Barcelona Port's Tinglados. The group's new chairman, Àngel Simón, and its CEO, José Vicente de los Mozos, have explained their objectives in Catalonia: to generate 1,500 new jobs and increase their turnover to 550 million euros by 2027. The group currently employs 3,500 professionals and generates sales of 366 million with its 8 headquarters in the territory. Indra's major staging in Catalonia comes just after the arrival of Simón as non-executive chairman of Indra. The former CEO of Criteria inaugurates his public agenda with this Monday's session.

During the last ten years, the number of foreign workers in Catalonia has doubled and they now total 773,000 employed. A report by Foment del Treball estimates the increase in this group between the first quarter of 2016 and that of 2026 at 386,700 people. The strong growth has boosted their weight in the net new employment created in Catalonia over the last decade, to the point of absorbing more than half (52.3%). This figure places the country almost 15 percentage points above the national average, which stands at 37.5%, despite La Rioja (55.2%), Castilla y León (58.9%), and the Basque Country (59.2) having larger proportions.

"It's not about not installing solar panels or wind turbines, it's about doing it well and with common sense". In recent years, Catalonia has not been able to progress enough in renewable energies and currently the country is very far from the objectives set by both the European Union and the Parliament of Catalonia itself. But how should they be deployed in the territory? Where should solar panels or wind turbines be installed? In an event organized by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) and ARA, a reflection was held this Tuesday on which areas should be explored in order to protect agricultural land as much as possible.

A study by Foment del Treball estimates the investment deficit in Catalan infrastructures at 49,543 million euros between 2009 and 2025. "It is alarming, profoundly indignant, and absolutely intolerable," stated the president of the entity, Josep Sánchez Llibre, this Monday during the presentation of the report. And the trend is not reversing: according to the president of the employers' association, the situation has been aggravated by a "disastrous" public management that "is not corrected, but rather becomes more serious each time."

A study by Foment del Treball estimates the investment deficit in Catalan infrastructure at 49,543 million euros between 2009 and 2025. "It is alarming, profoundly outrageous, and absolutely intolerable," stated the entity's president, Josep Sánchez Llibre, this Monday during the report's presentation. And the trend is not reversing: according to the employers' association president, the situation has been aggravated by “a disastrous” public management that “is not being corrected, but is becoming more serious each day.” The data arises from the difference between observed tenders and a threshold of 2.2% of Catalan gross domestic product (GDP), which according to the study should serve as a reference.

This year, May Day arrives amidst a climate of uncertainty for thousands of workers in the country. The start of 2026 has not been particularly good for employment: according to the Active Population Survey (EPA) published this Tuesday, Catalonia added 84,400 unemployed people in absolute terms between January and March, which confirms the worst inter-quarterly increase since 2009. This figure places the unemployment rate at 10.12%, compared to 8.24% at the end of last year. In contrast, for the country as a whole, the unemployment rate was 10.83%, the lowest level in a first quarter since 2008.

New plot twist in the future of Parlem Telecom. One month after the non-integration with Avatel, a series of debts amounting to 16.6 million euros loom over the Catalan telecom operator. Specifically, as read from the annual results provided by the company to the BME Growth, various credits made by Inveready – investor fund owner of Avatel and shareholder of Parlem – and its main holder, Josep Maria Echarri, have moved to short-term maturity after various financial ratios established in the financing contracts (covenants) were breached during the previous fiscal year. “There is a short-term liquidity risk,” acknowledges the auditor in the annual accounts presented this Thursday.

The industrial sector warns of a major mismatch between training supply and labor demand in the sector. A study carried out by KPMG, along with Amec (the national association of exporting companies), the College of Industrial Engineers of Catalonia, the FemCAT foundation, and the Foundation for Industry, indicates that 58% of the positions required by the sector cannot be filled: while 26,000 positions are opened annually in industrial companies, only 11,000 people are trained for the sector each year.

The pharmaceutical company Bayer billed 787 million euros in 2025 in Spain. The figure represents a drop of 4% compared to the previous year, in which the firm achieved sales of 822 million. As explained by the CEO of the Bayer subsidiary in Spain, Jordi Sánchez, the drop in billing is mainly due to the withdrawal from the market of the insecticide Movento, which has been banned in Europe. This impact has been particularly noticeable in the sales of the company's agricultural division –the Crop Science area–, which has reduced sales by 20%, to 227 million euros.

A tool to guarantee budgetary execution in Catalonia. The Government, Esquerra Republicana, and a large part of the business world have joined forces this Monday to present the Investment Consortium, a body that aims to manage and plan state investments in Catalan territory. The proposal, born in 2024 from the investiture agreement between the PSC and ERC, seeks to provide solutions to an “endemic problem” in the country, as stated by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, who added that it will be a “good instrument” to improve Catalonia’s “competitiveness”.

The Government is launching a new service to bring access to the Generalitat's in-person procedures and services closer to more than 600,000 Catalans. Starting Monday, five vehicles will travel through rural areas and poorly connected territories so that citizens can carry out the procedures they need from their municipality. The five mobile Citizen Service Offices (OAC) will serve a total of 200 municipalities; specifically, each vehicle will cover 40 towns. And, as stated by the Department of the Presidency of the Generalitat, routes have been defined to "guarantee balanced and homogeneous coverage of the entire country." For 2026 and 2027, the Generalitat will invest approximately 2.43 million euros in this service.

A few days before the first anniversary of the electrical blackout on April 28th, new details about its possible causes continue to emerge. This Friday, the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) explained that it has initiated several sanctioning proceedings to determine the circumstances of the blackout. Thus, the regulatory body assures that, as a result of the investigations, "various indications of non-compliance" have been detected, some of which have been maintained for "prolonged periods of time," which could constitute administrative infractions.

The Catalan family group specializing in irrigation systems and the production of phytosanitary products MatHolding closed 2025 with a record turnover of 429 million euros, representing an increase of 6% compared to the previous year. Coinciding with the company's ninetieth anniversary, the industrial group has also improved its ebitda –a financial indicator that shows a company's operating profit before deducting interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization– by 16%: it has increased to 65 million.