labor

Now they are returning to Romania leaving a void in the labor market

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During the 2000s, Spain was the host country for many Romanian citizens. With the real estate bubble about to explode and a financial crisis in the making, the outlook in Spain was still better than that of the Romanian economy. Now, almost three decades later, those emigrants return to a growing Romania, leaving Spain without a valuable skilled labor. The Romanian exodus. According to Eurostat databetween 2010 and 2013, Romania’s population decreased by more than two million people. A good part of these people had emigrated to countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria or Israel. According to the INE data Regarding the foreign population residing in Spain in June 2013, the Romanian community was the largest in 2012 with 798,970 people of that nationality, closely followed by the Moroccan nationality with 771,632 people. The latest data from December 2025 available data reveal that, currently, the population of Romanians residing in Spain barely exceeds 609,270 people and has fallen to the third largest community in the country. Qualified workforce. Most of those migrants who arrived in Spain in the early years of the 2000s did so fleeing unemployment and the poor economic situation in sectors such as construction or agriculture in Romania. These new workers incorporated as labor for those sectors in Spain, and the second generation of those citizens was formed to become a skilled workforce for the Spanish labor market. The Romanian miracle. In recent years, the economic situation in Romania has given a turnaround. “When the Romanians overthrew its regime in a rapid (and violent) revolt in December 1989, it was one of the poorest countries in Soviet-dominated Europe. That is no longer the case. After a slow start, Romania’s free-market reforms took effect. The country’s economy has quadrupled in size since 1989, and it has joined NATO and the EU,” noted Daniel Fried, former US ambassador to Poland in a report for Atlantic Council. According to data According to the World Bank, the GDP Per Capita adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP) of Romania has gone from 13,313 dollars in 1990 to 40,666 dollars in 2023, compared to the 31,639 dollars that Spain registered in 1990 and the 47,142 dollars in 2023. The most notable difference in the GDP of both countries was recorded precisely in the period of greatest migration of Romanians to Spain, between 2000 and 2012. This is what Csaba Balint, member of the Board of Directors of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), rated of the “golden era” of the Romanian economy. Coming home: exodus 2.0. After the invasion of Ukraine, the economic boom and the Romania GDP growth has slowed down, but continues at a rate of 0.7% in 2025. However, this upward trend has built the foundations so that those first migrants who arrived in Spain in the 2000s can return to their country, just as the Spaniards who emigrated in the 60s and 70s returned years later. According to the immigration data According to the INE, between 2024 and 2025 alone the population of foreigners with Romanian nationality decreased by 11,193 people, chaining the downward trend of recent years. This workforce is now much better trained and more productive than the one that arrived at the beginning of the millennium. The return of Romanian citizens to their country is another factor in the labor shortage recorded by the construction sector, since a good part of this migrant population were bricklayers, carpenters, electricians or plumbers and they filled those positions that now they are left without generational relief. A version of this article was published in January 2025 In Xataka | With unemployment at historic lows, Spanish companies are looking for workers. The problem is that they can’t find them Image | Unsplash (aboodi vesakaran, Mina Rad)

the new labor moralism of the ultra-rich

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David Solomon is one of the most influential managers on Wall Street. Nobody gave him supposedjust as Solomon himself told in the graduation speech from students at the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. The Goldman Sachs executive gained his position through hard work, washing dishes at McDonald’s and serving ice cream at an ice cream parlor while he studied. His story is that of rewarded effort, that of a young man who learned to squeeze every hour of the day and knew how to take advantage of it in the workplace. The problem is that, when that message is sent to the young people of Generation Z today, something doesn’t add up: the world in which Solomon built his career and the one in which Gen Z has had to live They look less and less alike. A lesson in time management. On the stand and before an audience of recent graduates, Solomon explained that as a teenager he played three sports, participated in his school’s student council and still found time to work serving ice cream at a local ice cream shop. Perhaps hoping for some financial help, Solomon told his father that, despite his dedicationhe never had enough money to cover his expenses. Instead of a loan, the millionaire manager got some advice from his father: “write down everything you do each day on a calendar.” In doing so, he realized that he was wasting a lot of his time. Three weeks later, with more order in his schedule, he had already found space for a second job preparing hamburgers at a McDonald’s. Solomon made that lesson the focus of his speech at Wharton, where he talked about embracing criticism and taking advantage of available opportunities. “Throughout my 42-year career, I have discovered that there are certain fundamental values ​​that transcend technological and cultural changes,” said the Goldman Sachs executive. Effort yes, but where are the opportunities? What Solomon did not mention in his speech is that the ladder that Solomon climbed during his youth, today has many more candidates and many fewer steps. According to a recent report of the recruitment platform Greenhousethe average number of applications per offer grew by 111% between 2022 and 2025, going from 116 to 244 applications per position. That is, for every job opportunity there are twice as many candidates. The writer, podcaster and professor at New York University Suzy Welch told in the podcast ‘Masters of Scale‘ conducted by Jeff Berman, that younger workers face the same intensive schedules and tough work demands as previous generations, but lack the assurance that hard work and the effort will reward them with progress in their careers. “We believed that if you worked hard, you would be rewarded. And therein lies the disconnection,” said the work motivation expert. The problem is not that young people do not want to work. According to the report ‘Turning the Tide on Economic Inactivity‘ prepared by the consulting firm PwC, 42% of young people aged 18 to 24 who left the labor market did so due to mental health problems, and the analysis ‘Keep Britain Working‘ from the British Government reveals that young people in the United Kingdom are almost five times more likely to be out of work. According to a report according to the Gallup consultancy in 2025, those under 35 years of age are now less committed than their older colleagues, something that has not happened since 2007. 78% of adults under 30 years of age also fear that artificial intelligence will destroy employment opportunities, compared to 45% of those over 65 years of age who fear for their jobs. A system that does not always reward effort. A Pew Research Center survey in 36 countries reveals that 57% of those surveyed believe that today’s children will grow up in worse conditions than their parents. In Spain the perception is even more concrete: 58% of citizens believe that young people are going to live worse than their parents, according to CIS data from 2024 collected by The Pluraland 84.4% consider that they have more difficulties than previous generations to become independent. 68.7% of young people between 18 and 34 years old lived with their parents or depended on their income in 2025, according to Eurostat data collected by The Confidential. A survey carried out by The Conversation collect the feeling of the young people of the generation that Solomon was addressing, who leaves statements from young people that put the current employment situation on the table: “We had a belief about what our life would be (…), which today is totally incorrect. At the cost of experiencing a great effort to train, the promise of work and economic stability is not fulfilled.” Those who already accumulate work experience are the most skeptical: “the social elevator has broken,” they conclude. In Xataka | Billionaire Mark Cuban has advice for Gen Z: “If you have time, use it to learn more about AI” Image | Unsplash (Marilia Castelli), Flickr (World Economic Forum)

20,000 million more will be spent on a factory with little water and labor

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TSMC’s journey in Arizona (USA) continues. Yesterday the board of directors of this chip manufacturer, the largest on the planetapproved an injection of 20 billion dollars in what is already its most advanced semiconductor production plant of any it has in the US. The start-up of this factory It was full of setbacks.. In fact, it started production of integrated circuits almost a year late due to how much it cost TSMC. find qualified personnel that I needed. At the beginning of 2025 the first good news arrived. The plant had been producing semiconductors for several months at the N4 lithography node, which belongs to the 5nm FinFET family, and was ready to deliver to Apple the first batch of SoC A16 and SiP S9. This factory, known as Fab 21, made $514 million in profit last year according to Yeh Chun-Hsienthe minister of the National Development Council of Taiwan. This is not bad at all if we keep in mind that during the first year of operation, semiconductor plants do not usually deliver profits. In this scenario, the investment of an additional 20 billion dollars in the expansion of Fab 21, which is the purpose of this money, makes sense. In fact, this project is part of the $165 billion expansion plan that TSMC presented last year. However, not everything is going well for this company in Arizona. According to the newspaper Taipei Timesthe shortage of labor, and, above all, of water, is giving many headaches to the management leadership of this factory. And solving this last problem is not easy. Arizona’s water shortage is a huge challenge for TSMC Arizona is the second driest state in the US only behind Nevada. Semiconductor factories need a large amount of this resource, but it is not ordinary water like what comes out of our taps; They need a type of water almost impossible to find in nature. And its scarcity is getting worse. In fact, it is slowly becoming a systemic threat to the industry that sustains the artificial intelligencecell phones, electric cars and virtually any device that has an advanced chip inside. The water we are familiar with, such as that which comes from the tap, spring water, and even bottled mineral water, is full of impurities. It contains bacteria, dissolved gases, mineral salts and microscopic particles in suspension. This is not a problem for most of the everyday applications we usually use it for, but This water is not suitable for making chips. Even the slightest impurity invisible to the human eye is pure poison when involved in the production of cutting-edge semiconductors, such as the 2nm integrated circuits currently being manufactured by TSMC. The industry standard calls for water with an electrical resistivity of 18.2 megohms per centimeter The integrated circuit manufacturing process requires cleaning silicon wafers dozens of times. Every time a geometric pattern is transferred to wafers using lithography, they need to be cleaned. Also after pouring chemical reagents and photoresist fluids on them. However, the water used to remove any residue that may have deposited on the wafer cannot have the slightest impurity. It must be absolutely pure. In fact, the industry standard calls for water with an electrical resistivity of 18.2 megaohms per centimeter, which is the theoretical limit of water purity at room temperature. The problem is that producing ultrapure water is not easy. And it is not because it is necessary to subject it to reverse osmosis in multiple stages and ion exchange treatments. It is also necessary to degas it under vacuum, eliminate any microorganisms it may contain with ultraviolet light and filter it using membranes expressly designed to capture the slightest impurity. In this article we do not need to investigate these processes in detail, but there is something that we cannot ignore: this treatment consumes energy and requires the use of a large amount of chemicals. Furthermore, a significant part of the water that is processed is not transformed into ultrapure water, so it cannot be used. Once the water has been subjected to this demanding treatment, it acquires such a high purity that it becomes corrosive if it comes into contact with a very wide range of materials. Because it lacks its own ions, ultrapure water absorbs ions from virtually any material it comes into contact with. This is the reason why the pipes used to transport it must be made of materials immune to corrosion, such as PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride), a fluorinated thermoplastic polymer similar to Teflon, non-polluting and extremely stable because it does not give up ions to ultrapure water. A single cutting-edge semiconductor plant consumes between 10 and 30 million liters of ultrapure water every day. This range is equivalent to the daily drinking water consumption of a city of between 50,000 and 150,000 inhabitants. Plus, there’s another challenge we haven’t looked into yet: ultrapure water degrades very quicklyso chip factories must have a very sophisticated production and distribution system capable of working in real time to deliver the ultrapure water required by the manufacturing process of advanced integrated circuits. Image | TSMC More information | Taipei Times In Xataka | Intel’s plan against an unattainable TSMC: beat Samsung and consolidate itself as the second largest chip manufacturer

Argentina has achieved something unprecedented since 1974: reforming its labor market

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After a session of more than 13 hours, the senators of Argentina they have given the go-ahead to the processing of the labor reform proposed by the government of Javier Milei. The call Labor Modernization Law It is Milei’s first major legislative victory in 2026 and rewrites pillars of the current labor system in force since the 1970s. In parallel, the union centers prepare new strikes and judicial actions to try to stop a rule that, in their opinion, makes dismissal cheaper, lengthens the working day and empties the right to strike of any content, while the Executive insists that without this type of reforms Argentina will remain trapped in a rigid labor marketwith a lot of underground economy and little investment. The Senate approves it, the street does not. The project of labor reform in Argentina has overcome its main obstacle by obtaining the necessary majority in the Senate, after more than 13 hours of session that ended with 42 votes in favor and 30 against, with no abstentions. The measure was approved while on the street Tear gas and police charges quelled the discontent of workers and union organizations. The balance of these protests is at least 15 injured and several dozen protesters detained. With the approval of the Senate, the Government is already maneuvering so that the labor regulations pass without major changes their approval by the Deputies, which is considered a mere procedure with supports already closed. Cheaper layoffs. The economic heart of the reform is in the calculation of severance pay. The law modifies what parameters are taken into account to calculate the settlement after dismissal. The bonus is left out of the compensation calculation (Supplementary Annual Salary), vacations and non-monthly bonuses, concepts that today many judges do take into account when calculating compensation. The practical result is that, in the event of an unfair dismissal, the worker will receive compensation lower than with the current scheme, although the norm incorporates a minimum limit of 67% of the usual salary. In addition, large companies can divide the payment of compensation to dismissed employees into up to six monthly installments, and up to 12 installments for SMEs. A common fund for compensation. To cushion the impact of compensation on companies, the new regulations contemplate the creation of the Labor Assistance Fund (FAL), a kind of common “piggy bank” for companies that is filled with mandatory monthly contributions. Large companies will contribute 1% monthly and SMEs 2.5% on the same basis that is used today for Social Security contributions. Therefore, Social Security will no longer have these resources and they will be administered under state supervision. When a worker is fired, a good part of the compensation that corresponds It will not be assumed by the company, but will come largely from that fund. Day up to 12 hours and bank of hours. The reform does not increase the working hours, which continue to be a maximum of 48 hours per week, but it does change how they are distributed. The key is in the “hour bank”. Company and worker may agree that, instead of paying for all hours worked beyond the eight hours per day established by law, they are counted as overtime hours and are later compensated with days off or reductions in working hours. This measure opens the door to some days that the day can be extended up to 12 hours, as long as it is then balanced within the agreed period. For the Executive, this new model gives flexibility to sectors with peaks of activity. For the unions, it gives rise to the continuation of the days without the economic bonus that today protects the worker. Unregulated overtime. Another of the changes approved in the new Argentine labor regulations is that compensation for overtime is no longer regulated almost exclusively by collective agreements, and is now negotiated individually between the employee and the company. Added to this is another relevant novelty in terms of salaries: the salary can be paid both in pesos and in foreign currency, or even in kind, food or accommodation. Salary payment must be made through a bank transaction, thus reducing the underground economy that encourages cash payments, and increasing fiscal control. Medical leave and vacations. Medical leaves due to illness or accidents other than work are limited in some cases. If the cause of the decline is considered a voluntary act or a health risk behavior, the employee will receive 50% of the basic salary for three months, as long as he or she does not have dependents, or six months if he or she does. In other cases, the percentage may reach up to 75% of the salary. The company also gains weight in the medical and control boards, which the unions interpret as a lack of protection for sick workers. Vacations also change logic. The new law allows vacation days to be divided into blocks of no less than seven consecutive days, which may be rotated throughout the year. In this way, it is no longer guaranteed to have all the summer vacationand it is only ensured that the worker will have at least a few days of vacation in the summer coinciding with school vacations once every three years. In practice, companies gain margin to organize the vacation calendar according to productive needs and distribute staff in different batches during the year without the employee having the power to decide on it. Limits on the right to strike. One of the most sensitive points for the labor movement are the restrictions on the right to strike and union organization. The reform significantly expands the list of “essential services“in which, even during a legal strike, at least 75% of the activity must be maintained. For the worker, this means that many stoppages will result in almost normal services and that the pressure capacity of the strikes is significantly reduced. Union meetings during working hours will require prior authorization from the companies and will not … Read more

The Ministry of Labor wants death leave to be extended to 10 days. Obstacle: Congress

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The Ministry of Labor plans to approve by royal decree law the extension of leave for the death of family members up to 10 days. Although the formula would allow its entry into force immediately after the Council of Ministers, there is a risk that the measure will end up being overturned later in Congress. Just like share El País, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, confirmed this Tuesday that “the intention would be for the rule approving leave for bereavement and death to be an urgent rule” and that his “predisposition is to do so through a royal decree law shortly.” The Government’s strategy. By processing the norm as a decree law instead of as an ordinary draft law, the ministry led by Yolanda Díaz seeks to ensure that the extension of permits is applied immediately, without waiting to complete the entire parliamentary procedure. That would make the measure come into force the day after its publication in the BOE, although it then requires validation by Congress within a maximum period of one month. According to account In the middle, during that period, workers who suffer a family death could now access extended leave. Agreement. Job agreed with CCOO and UGT On December 15, the paid leave for the death of a spouse, common-law partner or relatives up to the second degree (parents, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren) was extended from the current two days (extendable to four in the event of displacement) up to 10 days. These could be used continuously or discontinuously within four weeks after death. Furthermore, just as share El País, the agreement includes a new 15-day permit for palliative care, divisible into two fractions over a period of three months, and one day of leave to accompany someone who is going to receive euthanasia, regardless of family ties. Rejection. The employers’ association CEOE and Cepyme have opposed the proposal because they consider that “it represents a new attempt to transfer to companies the cost and responsibility of public policies on care that corresponds to the Administration,” as they indicated in a statement. The lack of consensus in social dialogue marks the position of the PP, which has already announced its vote against following its criterion of rejecting labor measures that do not have the joint support of unions and employers. Key vote in the air. Parliamentary arithmetic turns Junts and PNV into decisive pieces in approving or not the measure. Just like they point From El País, the Catalan nationalists have already joined together with PP and Vox to overturn the reduction in working hours and have maintained very critical positions with other proposals rejected by unions and employers, such as the increase in the self-employed quota. For the measure to be approved, the Executive would need the support of the entire left plus the support of Junts and PNV, or at least the yes of one and the abstention of the other. Comparisons with Europe. Labor has been highlighting Spain’s delay compared to neighboring countries in regards to death leave. From the middle they point out that Portugal extended the paid leave for the death of a spouse in 2023 to 20 days, equal to that of children, while in France 12 working days are granted for the death of children and 14 if the deceased is under 25 years of age. According to the ministry, the current two days in Spain are insufficient to face a duel. A controversial vote. The decision to take the measure through a decree law responds to a clear intention to make it difficult for the opposition to reject it, since it is a measure of high social sensitivity. “suffering from the death of a son or daughter” is “not a question of the right or the left,” counted Pérez Rey in the middle. Cover image | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | Deepfakes are much more than a bad joke. Now the Government wants them to be a violation of the right to honor

a temporary robot with AI, drones and without labor rights

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The “robots eat us” is far away for some jobs. In others, that science fiction scenario became a reality a long time ago. Every time it is more common to see that department stores are operated by robots and that automated or remote-controlled machines they have made a space in a framework in which there is a lack of labor. The countryside does not escape from that reality and in a country as dependent on agriculture as Spain, there are already those who are testing self-employed seasonal workers with artificial intelligence who They work tirelessly. And the controversy is served. Temporary with AI. A few days ago there was XXX IRTA Fruit Daysa meeting in which agricultural companies present technical innovations for the sector. One of the participants was Moreno Intec del Pla, a distributor and manufacturer of agricultural machinery specialized in fruit harvesting that has to its credit the Tecnofruit: a picking platform with conveyor belts on which human workers manually place the fruit. At this year’s event, the company presented a robot that has been in development for four years. It is a kind of huge container that has the fruit tanks, diesel tank, engine and wheels, but that has eight drones hooked to its upper part. Each of them is armed with an arm that they use to pick up the fruit (apples, in this case) and place it in the containers. The main advantage? They don’t get tired and each unit has integrated lighting to continue working, whatever the time of day. How it works. Each drone has cameras that allow the specimens to be identified, and a artificial intelligence It is responsible for analyzing whether the piece fits the parameters predefined by the farmer. This system can be configured to harvest all units or to discriminate based on size or color, and although it has remote control so that a single person can control up to five harvesters with the tablet, operation is autonomous. Apart from harvesting, it can also perform other functions such as the selective elimination of small fruits and, although the system currently uses a diesel engine with the aim of guaranteeing long autonomy, there are plans to create electrified versions. Costs and labor. Lluís Asín is responsible for the IRTA Fruit Growing program and, as we read in Segrecomments that systems like this represent “an important leap in the competitiveness of the sector.” He states that between 30% and 40% of the production cost of a plantation corresponds to the harvest and that platforms like this can help improve the profitability of the fields. And, of course, the debate is on the table because the robot arrives to directly replace human labor. Sergi Moreno is the technical director of Tallers Moreno, promoters of this robot, and assures that “it replaces the human part of the process. Each drone acts as if it were a person, but with the ability to operate day and night without rest.” He continues by pointing out that “the main problem of the sector is the lack of labor at the time of harvest”, but it is not perfect and can be seen in the demonstration video: “the same productivity as in manual work has not yet been achieved.” Japanese impulse. Now, Moreno is clear that “the future of the field depends on this automation,” and although Tallers Moreno have been the promoters, the robot has the impulse from Kubota Corporation. This is a Japanese agricultural machinery manufacturer that is developing and marketing autonomous drones for fruit and vegetable harvesting. plantation care. It is not unusual for proposals like this come from Japansince the country is going through a deep birth crisis that is affecting all sectors of society, and work in the field is not left out of this. This automation, in addition to reducing labor costs by 30% (a figure that coincides with IRTA’s estimate), allows increase the height of trees so that they produce more and they claim that the return on investment occurs in just three weeks. World. The development of this machinery is not isolated and Kubota is working hand in hand with the Israeli company Tevel Aerobotics Technologies. Like many other countries, Israel has a problem with agricultural labor, which is why it is looking to accelerate the development of these autonomous drones. It is one of the epicenters of both development and testing, but there are other countries involved. In the United States, states such as California or Washington are already integrating drones in fruit and vegetable harvesting. lettuce. In Europe, Italy and Spain have pilot collection programs underway and are also creating development and collaboration platforms, such as Tallers Moreno. Chile is evaluating the implementation for apple and grape farms. Debate. There are other countries in which putting drones to work is being well developed or valued, and the debate is served for the reason you can imagine: it is something that directly replaces the human worker. There are already voices that warn of a future in which the majority of these seasonal jobs will be absorbed by local automation, threatening livelihood of thousands of workers around the world. Furthermore, there are those who point to a unequal access because it will be the large producers that, with more means, will access this machinery, further strangling the small plantations. There is also the opposite argument, the one that defends robotic labor, pointing that there is no one who wants to work in the field and that new jobs will be created, with people who will have to train to control and maintain these robots. We continually talk about robots in facilities like car megafactoriesdepartment stores of companies such as Amazon and even in the kitchenbut now the field can be that place where robots perform another silent surprise. Although it will be necessary to see if the collection speed improves, because currently it is far from optimal. Images | Tevel In Xataka | You cannot get on the … Read more

Jensen Huang Discrepa from Musk and sees in AI a deep labor transformation

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We are seeing in real time how advances in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) begin to mold the world in which we live. Models like him Figure 02 are already being tested in factorieswhile others such as Neo Beta have begun to reach the first homes. If some of the current projections are fulfilled, within a few years we could live in cities where Automats are everywhere. The big question is inevitable: what will happen if this scenario comes true? What will we live when I assume most of the work? For a long time, Elon Musk defends A “sustainable abundance” model, in which humans would receive a high universal income and access better health, food, housing and transport services. A future with robots everywhere According to your vision, jobs will become optional because “Probably none of us will have a job.” Not all the big names of the sector share this opinion. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, coincides with Musk that there will be a massive robots deployment, But he doesn’t believe that implies the end of work. Your bet, As he revealed in an interview with Fox Businesspasses through a smaller workday. “I have to admit that I fear that in the future we will be more busy than now. The reason is that many different things that have been done faster for a long time. I am always waiting for the work to end because I have more ideas; most companies have more ideas to pursue.” The manager argues that artificial intelligence will increase our productivity, but will also allow to have more time for leisure and personal development. That does not mean, he insists, that we will be unemployed receiving an income: “We can spend more time on weekends traveling. We come from a world with work weeks of 7 days, and now we have one of 5, and each industrial revolution leads to some change in social behavior. But I hope that the economy does very well thanks to the AI. And some works will disappear, but all the works will change as a result of the AI.” As a point, the world expense at AI reached 235,000 million dollars in 2024 and, if the current rhythm is maintained, it will exceed 630,000 million in 2028, According to IDC. In an intermediate adoption scenario, up to 30% of the hours worked It could automate from here to 2030, driven by the generative AI, The McKinsey Global Institute points out. The unknown remains which of the two magnates will succeed with its prognosis. What is clear is that both have weight interests in this new scenario: Musk plans to popularize his humanoid robot Tesla Optimus, while Huang seeks to consolidate Nvidia leadership in AI and robotic systems for companies and homes. Images | Nvidia | 1x In Xataka | Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars in signing talents in AI. Now they are escaping through the back door

The data suggests that Germany works less hours than Spain. The reality of your labor market tells another story

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The reduction of working hours and how to face it is an issue on the debate table in a good part of the world. In Spain, the reduction of working hours is in Parliamentary Processing Phase and it is expected that at the end of the year a working day of 37.5 hours per week will be carried out. Countries like Germany, United Kingdom or Portugal have performed pilot tests of the four -day work week to evaluate The effect of that reduction. However, why is the reduction of working on if, according to 2023 data of Eurostat, in Spain the Real workday Average is already 36.4 hours a week, while in Germany is 34 hours a week? The key after that figure is in the quality of the employment of each country and reveals that, even if it may seem, a worker in Germany does not work less hours than in Spain. The middle days. In response to Eurostat data, indeed, the days in Germany seem to be shorter than in Spain, with 36.4 hours a week in front of the 34 hours of Germany. However, if we segment that data by type of day, the expected thing would be for working hours to maintain the same proportion. Nothing is further from reality. By differentiating the Eurostat data Between full time and part -time day we find that the average number of usual weekly hours in the main employment in full -time is 40.2 hours a week in both Spain and Germany. Something similar happens when differentiating the part -time Where Spain leaves an average of 20.3 hours a week, while on average part -time workers in Germany do 21.8 hours. So, if the days of Spain and Germany are not so different, why is there such a remarkable difference in the average? The key is in the quality of the labor market. Precariousness. According to him Press report Prepared by an expert council appointed by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy in 2022, 42% of workers in Spain suffer some kind of precariousness (Submployment, temporary contracts, low wages, etc.). Despite that, after the 2022 labor reform, it changed The contract model expanding the use of the contract full -time indefinite. According to the 2023 INE data13.3% of the workforce in Spain worked part -time. That is, the data indicate That in that year, 15,454,000 employees worked full -time, while 2,580,900 did it part -time in Spain. Instead, the German labor market is much more fragmented in that aspect. In 2023, 31% of this country’s workers worked part -time, According to data of the Federal Statistics Office. This difference in full -time employment and part -time contracts makes a big difference in the calculation of the final average of weekly hours worked, since both variables are taken into account. Active retirement. To this is added the enormous success in Germany of the model of “Minijobs“, in which workers complement studies or retirement with part -time jobs for a few hours a week. official dataaround 13% of retirees between 65 and 74 years in Germany, they continue working, either out of economic necessity or by personal choice. On the other hand, in Spain that percentage drops to 4.08% of the retirees who choose to continue working with some or none modification in your workday. Average working life in Europe. Source: Eurostat That makes, according to Eurostat dataGermany’s working life is 39.6 years, while in Spain it is 36.3 years on average. That is, a good part of German workers work less hours a week in part -time jobs, but they do it for more years than Spanish workers. In Xataka | Some researchers have analyzed the working day in Spain: the same thing that 40 years ago is worked, but in worse jobs Image | Eurostat

Europe wants solar panels without forced labor. The only problem is that almost everyone comes from China

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In the early 2000s, Europe was consecrated as The largest solar energy manufacturer worldwide. After more than two decades, that dominant position is a memory against the unstoppable advance of China, which has achieved that more than 80% of global production leaves its factories. A paradigm shift. China has a very particular look of seeing the world in the long term, thanks to that philosophy he has managed to position himself as a leader in solar energy. His method has managed to manufacture cheapest solar panels thanks to a subsidy strategy, vertical integration and almost absolute control of supply chains, such as has detailed Bloombergnef. Meanwhile, European manufacturers have had to compete with those priceswhich has triggered a wave of factor closures, bankruptcies and personnel reductions. Europe’s response. The old continent wants to make its own solar panels again, but motivated by an ethical and geopolitical pressure in the sector. According to Financial TimesThe scrutiny over the Xinjiang region, in China, has grown, which concentrates about 20 % of the world production of polysilicio and where various Western governments have denounced violations of human rights and forced labor against the Uigur population. Faced with this, countries like the United Kingdom have taken a firm position. In April, the British Government declared that your state energy company may not use solar panels linked to forced labor. This ethical trend could force European solar developers to rethink their supply chain and prioritize more transparent suppliers, even if they are less competitive in price. There are already measures underway. On the one hand, in a more ambitious attempt to recover part of its energy autonomy, the EU approved last year The Net Zero Industry Law. This regulation forces to consider not only the price, but also criteria such as the resilience of the supply chain, the environmental impact and the local origin by making public purchases of clean technologies. On the other hand, European products will be prioritized in tenders to equip hospitals, public buildings and other state infrastructure with solar energy. According to Solar Power Europe for Financial Timesthis regulation could create a market of up to 9 gigawatts of solar capacity for “resilient” products already in 2026. But the numbers do not lie. The distance with China is abysmal. Today, Chinese solar panels are sold at about $ 0.09 per watt, a radical decrease from the dollar per watt in 2012, According to Bloombergnef. European companies simply cannot compete in costs compared to the scale and efficiency of the Chinese model. There is something more background. Not only is it a matter of assembly, but strategic minerals. In a broader context, starting a mine can take up to 17 years since it is activated all protocols. Instead, China has been assuring its sources of lithium, rare earths, copper and silicon for 20 years. In this way, even with the new EU regulations working perfectly, the so -called “resilience market” would cover less than 14 % of the solar capacity added in Europe, According to Financial Times. And there would be no guarantees that these panels be produced by European manufacturers: they could come from India, South Korea or other countries that do not use materials of Chinese origin. Will it go through the hoop? Here the main question that arises is: Is Europe ready to assume the political economic cost of reindustrializing its solar sector? Or will it accept the dependence of a cheap but geopolitically complex supplier? For now, the measures seem insufficient to significantly alter the structure of the market. The European energy transition progresses, but does it mounted on Chinese panelseven when their governments promote technological and ethical sovereignty speeches in commerce. Europe has aroused a race that she helped to start. Recovering the lost terrain will be difficult. The sun does not expect, and China already closed the umbrella. Image | Climate Group Xataka | Filling mirrors space is a booming business. THE OBJECTIVE: DO NOT MAKE NIGHT ON SOLAR PANELS

The Z generation has made them their labor refuge

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The Generation Z is revolutionizing The work world by incorporating values ​​such as self -care and labor flexibility into their work career, which previous generations had relegated to the background. That is opening a new Fan of Labor Opportunities Denied by the previous generations, which described them as boring and monotonous. The Z generation is getting very good performance of them, in large part, by the Lack of generational relief that existed in those professions. Companies need more accounting. The accountant’s work was denosted by millennials as a symbol of boring job. However, the expectation that 75% of the current accountants will retire in the next decade. Fortune esteem that the US labor market needs about 340,000 accountants. That has opened a window of opportunity for the Z generation that finds in this job a way to align with its values ​​and not yield to the self -care of mental health that has made young people do not want to ascend by the High cost for your stress levels. 94% find stable employment. According to a study of 2022 Made by the Center for Financial Studies, Distance University of Madrid and the University of Murcia, it revealed that in Spain, 94% of accounting students who finished their studies obtained quality employment, full -time and with average gross wages above 30,000 euros per year, and almost 20% obtained wages over 40,000 euros in a short time space. Boring, but with purpose. Being accounting is, according to A study carried out in 2022 by the University of Essex, the second most boring profession, only behind the data analyst. Despite this cataloging, Fortune It echoed that some university students were using their knowledge in accounting to generate a positive impact on their community by helping people with their personal taxes and finance. These experiences meet another obsessions of generation Z: do a job with purpose. This help not only gives them personal satisfaction, but also serves as a formula to accumulate experience and access to better salaries when graduating. Mental health and stability. Unlike millennials, who prioritized work flexibility and more dynamic careers, the young people of generation Z seek jobs that offer them stability to develop their life and a Less impact on your mental health. As can be report ‘A problem like a house ‘prepared by the Youth Council of Spain, 87% of young people in Spain have to share house to reduce expenses and be able to emancipate themselves. According to data of Eurostat, in Spain the Middle Ages to emancipate itself was in 2023 of 30.4 years, so finding a stable and well -paid job is one of the main concerns for this generation. Forgotten professions now boom. The world facing the Z generation is very different to which it was raised to previous generations. Young people have changed university titles and precarious office jobs by Professional degrees and well -paid trades. That said, the arrival of AI is an elongated shadow for jobs in this sector that, according to forecasts, runs A high risk of automation. However, outstanding voices in the development of AI, Like Sam Altmanthey have been advancing that the role of AI in these sectors will be oriented to Eliminate more tedious work of data transposition, leaving humans the Strategic analysis of this data. In Xataka | “They are much more daring.” Image | Unspash (Mimi Thian)

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