ASEMPLEO, the organization of Employment Agencies, and AFI (Intenational Financial Analysts), presented a report called “Labour Market Advances ASEMPLEO-AFI” that analyses the phenomenon of overqualification in Spain, identifies the sectors and groups it affects the most, and the autonomous communities that present a better balance between training and employment.

The phenomenon of overqualification seems to be the consequence of employment created during the Spanish economic recovery, which’s main goal was to create jobs without considering their quality. “This is was a logical thought, considering that, after increasing the number of overqualified people during the first years of the recovery, the proportion started to drop in 2016”, claim the authors of the report.

The paper also highlights the rise in the number of workers who have jobs that do not fit their skills and education level. Therefore, overqualification has become a growing trend, with a 4.5% rise by the 2^nd quarter of 2018.

“The number of underqualified people has remained stable (about 3.6%), and there was a slight increase of qualified workers (1.2% more than by the 4^th quarter 2016), but they represent 42.5% of the total number of workers”, they explain.

There was a particular increase among women, and the gender gap remains around 10%. “Overqualification grew 3% among men, and 3.1% among women. Therefore, 49.3% of working men are overqualified, against the 59.4% of working women”.

The report provides valuable insight for different age groups. “Even though, during the past few years, young people (16 to 24 years old) have contributed the most to employment growth (20.6% since 4^th quarter 2016), it also presents the largest unemployment and overqualification rates. As a matter of fact, overqualification affects 66.4% of working young people”, they stated.

The report points out a problem of the construction sector, which, despite being the largest contributor to employment creation and only registering 7.3% of overqualification, “there is no balance between employment and education, as only 25% of workers in construction are qualified”.

As regards the mining and oil industry, and professional services, there has been an increase of qualified workers during the past few years, but they also show a larger unbalance: 7.2% and 5.3% of overqualification respectively.

Temporary jobs show a better adjustment between employment and training than permanent jobs. This phenomenon became evident during the first years of the recovery, in which data showed a reduction of the overqualification generated in 2016, and the trend showed a slight increase in the period analyzed.

Temporary contracts have reduced overqualification from 14.4% in the 4Q 2016 to 4% in the 2Q 2018. On the contrary, as regards permanent contracts only 1.5% of the contracts signed during the period analyzed are properly qualified.

In addition, Madrid shows the best adjustment, and Canarias the worst. “The autonomous communities where employment grew the most during the period analyzed are the ones that have experienced the largest growth of overqualification”, detail the authors of the study. Growth rates have been of 7.4% in Islas Baleares, 7% in Extremadura and 5.3% in Islas Canarias. On the opposite side we can find Navarra and Asturias, which are the autonomous communities where overqualification was reduced the most (1.2% and 0.8% respectively).

Finally, it is important to point out that the autonomous communities with the lowest unemployment rate have the largest overqualification rates. To name a few País Vasco, Cantabria and La Rioja, with overqualification rates of 59.4%, 58% and 56.4% respectively.