The Unemployment Rate In Portugal Is 6.3%, But There Are Open Positions In Technology: How To Take Advantage Of Them?
Beta-I, Le Wagon, Landing Jobs and Humaniaks joined forces to discuss opportunities on how to begin or move your career to the digital universe from September, 30th.
According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the unemployment rate in Portugal is 6.3% at the moment. This number is mainly related to jobs and professions existing before digital transformation, which has brought new career opportunities: right now, there are hundreds of job openings offered by startups and technology companies, and one of the biggest business challenges lies in creating proper recruitment strategies and employer branding projects in order to attract the best talents.
To raise the awareness of the professions of the future, Beta-i , Le Wagon, Landing Jobs and Humaniaks have teamed up to create Career in Tech Week . The week of free events will take place between September 30th and October 3rd at Beta-i, starting at 19 PM , and will feature different speakers on a variety of topics. Registration is free.
On the first day, high-paid (or well-paid) jobs such as Developer , Data Scientist, Product Manager, etc. will be discussed. On the second day, Landing Jobs will present a detailed report on the Tech Professions. On the third day, there will be a workshop on the skills required to get a job in tech and, finally, on the last day, there will be a talk with different professionals who will share how they radically changed their careers for the tech sector. The talk will be moderated by Humaniaks, and followed by networking drinks.
This initiative is important since the data released by Startup Portugal in conjunction with IAPMEI and the Ministry of Economy show that Portuguese economy grew in the period from 2016 till 2018 with a significant amount of startups and entrepreneurs contributing to this growth. Also, the value of sales and provided services increased among startups, which in 2018 reached an average of € 553,000 per company; with value added per employee being around € 80,000 per year, highlighting the growing contribution of local talent to the economy.
Because of the scarce labor resources and an increasing demand, wages in this area are higher than the national average. To compare, Portuguese average salary for graduates from tertiary education was € 1,547 (base) in 2017. According to the report “ Tech Salaries in Portugal” by Landing Jobs, a startup specialized in technology recruitment, most positions available to professionals with less than 3 years of experience will start with an average salary of 22K € / year, which represents a monthly income of 1,800 € per month.
Open positions in technology
Technology companies have increased their presence in Portugal in the last three years. Google opened its technology center in Oeiras, creating 500 positions in technology, Volkswagen opened its first software development center outside Germany and aims to generate 300 jobs , as well as its competitor Mercedes Benz, which plans to hire 100 developers .
Despite a variety of opportunities, there is no labor available on the market. According to Niels Kowollik, CEO and Executive Director of Mercedes Portugal at a press conference in Lisbon , “The market for good developers is quite difficult in Portugal. There are not so many skilled workers to be available. Thus, we’re recruiting from abroad”. At the time of the statement, the company had only hired 30 out of 100 required developers.
According to João Figueirinhas, CEO of Humaniaks, a startup focused on recruiting technology professionals, “technology companies have a hard time recruiting. Generally, either the selection process is long, as it is difficult to find sufficiently skilled labor for the openings in question, or the hiring cycles are shorter, but companies are in charge of training their own hires to perform the required function ”.
The shortage of skilled labor is likely to become even more intense, as several other companies are planning to open more subsidiaries in Portugal in the near future, such as British company Revolut and American company Amazon , which already started relocating to Lisbon last year, and has just announced the opening of its CloudFront division in the country.
These companies are attracted by two factors: government incentives (such as startup visa, national network of incubators etc.) and the increased amount of investment in the sector.
According to LC Ventures’ investment report in partnership with Beta-i and the National Federation of Business Angels Associations , the amount of 47MM € (Venture Capital deals ) and 11MM €( Business Angels Deals) was invested in startups in 2008 . Just in the first half of 2019, startup investments were 69MM € and 13MM € in both categories respectively. Due to the rise of venture capital funds, Pedro Falcão, Managing Partner of LC Ventures adds: “I believe Portugal will have more unicorns in the coming years”.