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How does this number of questions about housing work and what is it for?

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Let’s tell you What is telephone 047 and how does it work?. This is a toll-free government telephone number to make inquiries related to housing, and it comes into force from February 2026. With this number, the Government tries to offer citizens a reliable and truthful way to resolve any doubts they may have about housing, but also advice regarding possible conflicts. Let’s explain everything to you. How telephone 047 works The telephone number 047 is intended to access accurate information related to housing. Come on, if you have any questions related to legal or technical aspects of the home, you can call and ask about your rights and obligations. In this number you can make inquiries about topics such as rentals, sales or problems of coexistence with neighbors. You may also ask about urban leases, horizontal property, eviction procedures, prevention mechanisms, social housing and situations of vulnerability or legal protection of tenants. This phone also offers legal advice and support against market abuses. If you believe that your rights are being violated, you can call for help. For this legal part, the Ministry has the collaboration of the General Council of Lawyers of Spain (CGAE), which brings together 83 professional associations promoting arbitration and mediation methods. The idea is that mediation can be done to avoid going to court unnecessarily when there are conflicts. There are three levels when answering calls. The first level of attention is for basic consultations on the first call, those that are about general issues regarding rights and obligations regarding rental, property and cohabitation. It is expected that the first level can resolve between 90 and 95% of calls. There will also be a level for more specific and less general questions, such as those about specific cases or specialized areas. And there will also be a level to help with legal support or legal advice related to conflicts regarding housing. This advice and advice will be extrajudicial, meaning it will not be helped if the conflict is already judicialized. This number will be available to all Spanish users, regardless of the telecommunications company we have contracted. We will simply have to dial 047 without any type of prefix or anything else, and you will be put in contact with the helpline. Initially this service will have 25 people of different profiles and levelswho are the ones who will answer the calls. Among them there will be lawyers and personnel with specific training in housing matters.

What are they and how do they work when verifying that the message you receive is from who it says it is?

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Let’s explain to you What are verified SMS and how do they work?a technology that verifies that whoever sends you a message is who they say they are. This is something that has been around for a few years now, but we are going to see it more and more to fight fraud and scams. Let’s start by explaining to you in a simple way first the concept of these messages, so that you understand why it is important that they be normalized and used more and more. Then, we will also tell you in an understandable way how they work. What are verified SMS and what are they for? One of the most popular online frauds and scams out there is smishingwhich is a type of phishing in which a cybercriminal sends fraudulent SMS messages in bulk posing as a company. In these messages, attach a link or false information with which to start a process to steal your data, your online service accounts and even money. This has caused trust in the SMS we receive from companies to erode. In fact, when we receive communication through this method, the recommended thing today is not to trust it. And of course, this makes this type of notice no longer meaningful. And this is where verified SMS come into play, although they are not really SMS but rather messages that use the RCS protocol. In them, companies and entities can show an indicator that indicates them as an official channel or account. In Spain, BBVA or Bankinter has been one of the first large banks to start using this method. This way, when you receive a text message on your mobile, you will be able to distinguish when it was actually sent by an entity that has verified its identity and when it is an unidentified one. Thus, if your bank has its account verified when it sends you messages and you receive an unverified one, you will know that there is something strange, even if the name is the same. How verified messages work Verified messages are sent using RCS protocol. RCS are a type of messages that are sent like SMS and reach you in the same place as regular SMS, but with advanced functions such as sending photos, audio, creating groups, etc. It is a alternative to WhatsApp integrated directly into your messages application, both on Android and iPhone. In Spain, it is already a protocol that works with almost all operators. Regarding the company verification processaccording to the standard defined by the GSMA Entities have to complete a process before sending messages that appear as verified. First, the entity must register its identity with name and logo, and submit them to an external certification by a third party that validates that the entity can use that name and logo. This verification company must be included in the trusted list of the recipient’s operator. Those who verify the identity of the entities that want to send these messages are those known as Verification Authorities. These can be mobile operators, private companies specialized in digital verification or even government entities. The verification authorities They depend on each country and its deployment of this technology. Therefore, let’s take the case of Bankinter, which has been verified by Movistar. When this bank sends you a text message, it will do so with the RCS protocol. And since your operator recognizes Movistar as a valid verification authority, and Movistar has verified that the message comes from Bankinter, the message that you receive from the bank will have the verification badge. But there is one last step that your messaging application takes. Because when you receive the message, your app automatically downloads the sender’s profile and runs a series of technical checks before displaying the verification badge. It will even check if the verification signature is still valid with new messages. So, a complex verification chain is generated with several steps, and only when all of them are completed will the message appear as from a verified sender. This way, even if a cybercriminal manages to breach the security of one of the steps, there are still others. These are all protocols for sending verified messages within the RCS standard. In Xataka Basics | RCS vs WhatsApp, Telegram and other apps: advantages, disadvantages and why you no longer need messaging apps

We will increasingly see more “verified” SMS against fraud. The important thing is to understand how they really work

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We live watching our cell phones and what appears on their screen, from a notice from the bank to a code to authorize a payment. This dependency has turned the text message into fertile ground for deception, with campaigns of smishing that imitate well-known companies and sneak into conversations that seem legitimate. The problem is not only technical, it is trust: distinguishing at a glance who is really on the other side. For years, SMS has treated legitimate and fraudulent messages equally, and that neutrality is exactly what attackers exploit. Malicious campaigns detected in Spain show how names and formats of known entities are copied to gain the trust of the recipient. These messages are designed not to raise suspicion. And often, when doubt arises, it is too late to react. Say ‘hello’ to verified messages. Faced with the erosion of trust in traditional SMS, the industry has chosen to reinforce the identity of the sender instead of placing all responsibility on the user. Verified messages introduce a relevant change: they make visible whether a company has been recognized as legitimate before the message reaches the mobile. Supported by the RCS protocolthese messages add a name, logo and verification indicators with the intention of reducing one of the main weapons of fraud, confusion about the real origin of the message. BBVA. This is how it looks on mobile. In Spain, BBVA has been one of the first large banks to show this change visibly for the user. On Android, the bank’s official messages are identified with its name and logo, accompanied by an indicator that indicates them as an official channel. By clicking on that logo, the user can verify that the associated data, such as the telephone number or website, match those of the bank. Furthermore, these communications arrive in a different thread than traditional SMS, precisely to prevent them from being mixed with fraudulent messages. Bankinter has also taken the leap. Bankinter has partnered with Telefónica to distribute verified messages. The entity explains This will improve the security of “critical communications”, such as single-use codes for transfers or online payments. Here we will also find the sender verification confirmation, the official logo and additional information such as the website and a telephone number. How verification works. Behind that visible badge there is a process much less obvious to the user. The standard defined by the GSMA establishes several preliminary stages before a company can send a single verified message. First, the entity must register its identity, with a specific name and logo, and submit it to external certification by a third party that validates that the entity can use that name and logo. This validation is not enough on its own: the authority that issues it must be included in the trusted list of the recipient’s operator. Without that complete string, the check simply doesn’t show. Who verifies who. Here the so-called Verification Authorities come into play as third parties in charge of validating that a company is who it says it is before it can send verified messages. That role may fall to private companies specialized in digital verification, mobile operators or even government entities, depending on the deployment and the country. Afterwards, it is the user’s operator who decides whether they trust that authority, something that is sometimes reflected visibly in the message itself, as occurs in an official Bankinter example, where the system indicates that the verification has been carried out by Movistar. The final verification occurs when the message reaches the phone. According to the GSMA standard, the messaging app automatically downloads the sender’s profile and runs a series of technical checks before displaying any badge. It is checked that the signature is still valid, that the authority that issued it is accepted by the user’s operator and that the data has not been altered. Only if everything fits does the verification indicator appear; If something fails, the message loses that appearance of legitimacy. Does it work on iOS and Android? This scheme is not exclusive to Android. Apple added support for RCS as a carrier service starting with iOS 18, allowing you to send and receive messages with advanced features when not using iMessage. In practice, the behavior is the same: if the operator supports RCS and the standard is implemented, the system can display the name, logo and indicators associated with the sender. Without this support from the operator, the message returns to the familiar terrain of SMS or MMS, without additional verification signals. For the user, the practical learning is simple: a verified message offers more context and more clues than a conventional SMS, but it does not eliminate the need to remain cautious. Knowing that there is a technical process behind that distinction helps us better interpret what reaches our mobile phones and be wary when something does not match. However, in an environment where malicious actors never sleep, caution remains essential. Images | Vitaly Gariev | BBVA | Bankinter | Gemini 3 Pro In Xataka | Cybersecurity experts by day, cybercriminals by night: how two professionals fell after using ransomware

Uber Eats abandons autonomous riders after the fight with Work

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Uber Eats had been moving for some time within the perimeter of a rule that the Government promoted to redefine the labor market fit for home delivery in Spain. That standard, known as ‘Rider Law‘, put the focus on a crack that had been at the center of the debate for years, the figure of the “false self-employed“, and has been pushing the sector towards employee models or towards schemes in which the employment relationship is channeled through third parties. In this context, the fact that the platform now announces its intention to stop working with self-employed delivery drivers is not only an operational adjustment, it is a movement that contributes to reordering one of the great debates of the delivery. The announcement that finalizes the turn. Uber Eats has communicated that it will stop working with self-employed delivery drivers in Spain and links it to its adaptation to the current labor framework after several years of changes in its operations. The company explains that delivery drivers who still use the application as self-employed will be able to continue delivering as employees through collaborating fleets. “Uber Eats reaffirms its commitment to compliance with the Rider Law. After four years in which we have accumulated extensive experience working with expert logistics companies, and with the aim of promoting a long-term sustainable model, we have made the decision to stop collaborating with autonomous delivery drivers.” What happened on the way. To understand the scope of the movement you have to look back. Uber Eats does not reach this point from a fixed position, but after several changes of course from the approval of the ‘Rider Law’. In 2021, the platform stopped operating with freelancers and moved to a labor model based on subcontractors. One year later, in August 2022, opened the door to self-employment again and adopted a hybrid scheme in which salaried fleet delivery drivers and self-employed workers coexisted, in a context in which Glovo persisted in that model. On paper, the solution proposed by Uber Eats is clear. Delivery drivers who still use their application as freelancers will be able to continue delivering, but no longer as self-employed workers, but as employees of one of the collaborating fleets with which the platform operates. In practice, the transition from self-employed to salaried usually involves changes in the organization of work and conditions, although Uber Eats has not detailed how it will be applied in each case or deadlines for this transition. Not all delivery drivers could automatically fit into this traffic, nor is it clear how many real positions the fleets can absorb, which leaves open the possibility that some of these self-employed workers will be left out of the system. The threat of ‘the full weight of the law’. The background of this movement refers to a clash that came from behind. In October 2025, the Ministry of Labor raised the tone and waived the possibility of resorting to criminal proceedings if Uber Eats did not rectify its hiring model. The vice president and minister, Yolanda Díaz, was explicit in warning that “Uber (Eats) is not going to fool the Government of Spain, and I can already tell you that the weight of the law will fall on this company,” in reference to the use of false self-employed workers. A mirror in the sector. The Uber Eats movement does not occur in a vacuum. Glovo announced its change of model in Spain in December 2024 and operates fully with salaried delivery drivers from mid-2025while the criminal process continues against its top leader, accused of a crime against workers’ rights. Just Eat, for its part, stayed the course and persisted in its employee model. In this context, Uber Eats had remained the great exception, with a hybrid scheme that continued to combine fleets and freelancers. From now on, the focus shifts from the announcement to its actual landing. Uber Eats says it wants to put an end to pending litigation and facilitate a “fair process for everyone,” but it will be practical execution that will determine the extent of the turnaround. It remains to be seen how the transition from the self-employed to the fleets is articulated, how many delivery drivers manage to fit into that step and if the new scheme manages to dissipate the conflicts that have accompanied the sector in recent years. Images | Robert Anasch | appshunter.io In Xataka | The “absent recipient” trick: why delivery people mark your package as undelivered even if you were at home

Being over 55 years old does not only mean having work experience. Now it is also synonymous with being unemployed

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Labor market and demographics are two closely linked factors in which changes in one affect the other. Demographic aging is not only affecting the generational changebut is also generating an unprecedented change: for the first time in historical series, unemployment among those over 55 years of age exceeds that of the population between 25 and 54 years of age. Furthermore, the main difference is that reintegration into labor market for those over 55 years of age It does not occur in the same terms as in the younger segment of the population. This reversal of the historical pattern comes at the height of demographic aging, just when people are asking to work longer to support the pension system. A historic “sorpasso” in the senior unemployment. Historically, people aged 55 years or older registered less unemployment than the rest of younger workers, to the point that in 1994 their unemployment rate for this segment of the population was 9.2 points (11.7%) below that of the group of 25 to 54 years old (20.9%). This favorable gap has been progressively reduced until it disappears in 2023, at which point the differential became negative for senior workers. As stated in the study prepared by the BBVA and IVIE Foundation, in 2025, the “sorpasso” no longer leaves room for doubt and the average unemployment rate for those over 55 years of age reaches 9.8%, compared to the 9.4% unemployment rate registered for people between 25 and 54 years of age. This change occurs in a context of general improvement in employment in Spainwhich indicates a very notable relative worsening of the position of seniors within the labor market. That is, more is hired, but People over 55 years of age are not hired.. More time unemployed. As the BBVA Foundation report reveals, the problem is not only how many people over 55 years of age are unemployed, but also their duration of unemployment. it has been lengthening to the same extent that the gap with those under 55 years of age was reduced. “Their labor insertion is complicated, with longer periods of unemployment, fewer job opportunities and lower quality jobs,” the report points out. The data indicates that 57.9% of unemployed people aged 55 or over are long-term unemployed, having been unemployed for more than a year. looking for a job without finding it. This percentage contrasts with 36.1% among unemployed people aged 25 to 54 and 17.8% among young people aged 16 to 24. When they return they do so with worse conditions.. When these employees manage to re-engage in the labor market, they do so in much more fragile conditions than those they had. Among employees aged 55 or over with less than a year of seniority, that is, they have just joined a company, 52.6% have a temporary contract, 10% are in precarious employment with contracts of up to three months and 4.5% are permanently discontinued. On the other hand, among those employees over 55 years of age who have been in the same company for more than 25 years, temporary employment falls to 2%, there is hardly any precarious employment and discontinuous permanent employment is reduced to 2.4%. They return, but to worse jobs. According to the authors of the report, the differences are also noticeable in the type of occupations they enter after the period of unemployment. Among senior workers with more than 25 years of seniority who maintain their jobs, management, management or highly qualified occupations represent 45.6% of the total, while basic jobs only represent 7%. However, among older people who have just gotten a new job, only 15.6% occupy highly qualified positions and 29.4% end up in elementary occupations. This pattern is even worse than that of younger workers in the same situation: among those aged 25 to 54 who have just started a job, high-skilled occupations reach 29.1%, while basic occupations account for 20%. For the 16 to 24 year old group, these percentages are 27% and 15.5%, respectively. More dissatisfaction. Changing to a job with worse conditions also leads to an increase in job satisfaction for this segment of the active population, which, according to encrypts the studyrecords that 21.5% of newly employed seniors want to change their schedule and 16.4% continue looking for another job despite having found one, compared to 0.8% of their peers who have kept their job. In terms of salaries, the data paint a similar reality. The study by the BBVA and IVIE Foundation shows that the average annual salary of those over 55 years of age is 30,038 euros, above the 26,855 euros of the group between 25 and 54 years of age. But when the focus is placed on newly hired people over 55 years of age, their salary drops to 19,558 euros, slightly below the 19,837 euros earned by those aged 25 to 54 in the same situation and far from the 40,520 euros of senior workers who have not had their careers interrupted. In Xataka | 47% of the unemployed in Spain are over 50 years old. The problem is that many will not return to work until they retire. Image | Unsplash (guven karakoc)

that civil servants work less

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The reduction of working hours It was one of the most visible commitments of the Government for this legislature. Its objective was to reduce the working day from 40 to 37.5 hours per week without loss of pay. The proposal was processed, but ended running aground in Congress due to lack of support. Faced with this blockage, the Executive has chosen to advance where it does not need to negotiate with third parties or with Parliament. That is, on the only work area in which they have direct decision-making capacity: the officials of the General State Administration who do not depend on autonomous communities or city councils. The parliamentary failure of the 37.5-hour day. The general reduction in working hours required modifying the Workers Statute and, therefore, overcome a key vote in Congress. That support did not arrive, which left the measure without a legislative path in the short term. In this scenario, the Ministry of Labor formally maintains its commitment to reducing working hours, but cannot apply it to the entire labor market. This limitation explains the shift towards state public employment, where the Executive acts as a direct employer and can agree on the working conditions of state Administration officials, without having the support of the rest of the forces in the chamber. The 35-hour day and the reinforcement of teleworking. In this context, the core of agreement reached between the Ministry of Public Function and the unions involves implementing a 35-hour work week per week for employees of the General State Administration. The Government’s forecast is to approve it at the beginning of 2026 and for it to begin to be applied from February, once the organizational adjustments are finalized in each department. Along with the reduction in hours, the pact reinforces the Administration’s commitment to teleworking. It is not about introducing it from scratch, but about consolidating and organizing a modality that already exists, providing it with more stable regulations. The objective is to clarify conditions, guarantee technical means and prevent remote work from depending solely on internal decisions of each administrative unit. Both measures exclusively affect personnel dependent on the State. Excluding those public officials dependent on the autonomous communities, city councils and bodies with specific regimes, who maintain their own negotiating capacity. An important nuance: civil servants already worked less. The starting point for implementing this model of reducing working hours is not the same as in the private sector. The officials of the General Administration of the State had already established for years a working day of 37.5 hours per week, less than the ordinary legal of 40 hours. In fact, in public administrations dependent on communities such as Andalusia, Extremadura, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, Asturias and Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, already applied this 35-hour day since 2019, although some administrations they suspended them temporarily. This makes the measure announced now a continuing step that is already applied in other Administrations, thus equating state officials with regional officials. The other leg of the agreement: the pending salary increase. He agreement reached between the Ministry of Public Service and the majority unions is not limited to the working day. It also unlocks the application of the 2.5% salary increase corresponding to 2025, which had been pending payment, and 1.5% for 2026. This point is key to understanding the balance of the agreement since the reduction in working hours will not only imply a salary reduction, but is accompanied by a reinforcement of the purchasing power of officialsafter successive salary freezes and a context of inflation. Limited movement. Given that these changes only affect officials dependent on the State Administration, the real scope of the measure is limited in quantitative terms, since it affects approximately 250,000 public officials. However, it is a powerful incentive to attract the best talent to the Public Administration to address its rejuvenation process of the templates, and offering job stability and conciliation options. Factors that private companies increasingly limiting. In Xataka | The hoteliers cried out to the sky with the reduced working day. A hotel in the Balearic Islands has proven them wrong Image | Unsplash (Lissette Laverde)

There was a time when the Lottery Jackpot “took you away from work.” Today it barely takes away a part of the mortgage

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Someone who already has gray hair still remembers that, thirty years ago, May you get the Christmas Fat Man It was practically the key to financial freedom. With the full prize of one tenth (about 30 million pesetas in the 90s) you could buy several houses, pay mortgages and even ensure the well-being of your family with that stroke of luck. Today, with a prize of 400,000 euros (328,000 euros after taxes), that story sounds very different. One of the main conditions is that, in the mid-nineties, the real estate market in Spain I played in another league. Buy an apartment…or several In cities like Madrid, a home of about 90 square meters could be found for less than 14 or 15 million pesetas, according to official statistics. That meant that Fatty Christmas allowed to buy two apartments medium-sized in a big city, or buy one, pay off the mortgage and a good pinch to maintain a good margin of liquidity. In those years, the award was not just help: it was a complete break from financial worries. As was often heard at the doors of lottery administrations while the winners uncorked bottles of champagne, it was a prize that “kept you off work.” Thirty years later, the prize is still striking in terms of numbers, but its real purchasing power has changed. El Gordo has been frozen at 400,000 euros per tenth for more than a decade, while the price of housing has followed an almost constant upward trajectory. In Madrid, the average house price It ranges between 5,500 and 5,758 euros per square meter, which implies that with the 328,000 euros net of the prize, you can barely purchase 60 or 70 square meters at an average price. In practice, this means that Gordo no longer even guarantees a standard floor in many neighborhoods of the capital. Barcelona offers a similar image. With average prices located at 3,084 euros per square meter, the Gordo de Navidad allows buy a modest home or a medium-sized apartment in peripheral areas, but it is far from the purchasing capacity it had in the nineties. The comparison leaves no room for doubt: where before the prize opened the door to buying an apartment in the city and a house on the beachtoday it is barely enough for one, and not necessarily in the best conditions. The contrast is softened slightly if the market is viewed from more affordable cities. In capitals like Zamora or Lugo, where average prices are between 980 and 1,300 euros per square meter, El Gordo continues to allow you to buy spacious homes or even more than a small property. However, even in these more affordable markets, the premium no longer equivalent to that massive asset leap that it represented three decades ago. The difference is not so much in the amount of the prize as in the uneven evolution of prices. This purchasing capacity is also explained by the general price context. He housing cost It was much more aligned with the average income of the population and access to property was not subject to the housing and demand pressure that characterizes the current market. El Gordo, in that scenario, functioned as a real wealth multiplier. A Gordo with more salary, but less power make a salary comparison helps to better understand this change of scale. In the 90s, the average annual salary in Spain was around 2 million pesetas (about 12,000 euros). In that context, the Gordo of 30 million pesetas was equivalent to approximately 15 times the annual salary of a worker medium, which reinforced its perception as an immediate economic transformation: decades of income concentrated in a single stroke of chance. Today, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, the median salary annually in Spain is around 23,300 euros. With this reference, the current Gordo’s 328,000 euros is equivalent to just over 14 times the median annual salary. The proportion, curiously, is not that different from that of the nineties. The big difference appears when that salary multiple faces the price of housing (and all goods in general), which has grown much faster than income. That’s the key to change. Although the premium maintains a similar relationship with salaries, your ability to buy a home has deteriorated drastically. The real estate market has become decoupled from wage growth, and El Gordo, by remaining fixed, has been trapped in the middle of that gap. What was previously enough to buy two apartments today barely covers one, and in many cases forces them to continue getting into debt, although to a lesser extent. The social meaning of Gordo has changed. In the nineties it was synonymous with total economic independence. In 2025, it is still an extraordinary stroke of luck, but its role has shifted, no longer guaranteeing financial freedom, but financial relief. In Xataka | There is something even more difficult than winning the Lottery Jackpot: not making mistakes with the Treasury when collecting it Image | Flickr (srgpicker)

AI promised to free senior employees from tedious work. In reality it is loading them with more tasks

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Imagine a young recent graduate in finance, eager to join a large consulting firm. He dreams of learning the trade from below. That inexorably involves preparing reports, researching markets, creating presentations, etc. But along comes AI and suddenly those routine tasks are automated. He produce more and faster, but all that torrent of documents lands on the desk of the person in charge of supervising him, a senior manager who is now passing hours checking errors that have been overlooked. This scenario is what reveals a study prepared by the consulting firm UpSlide and its conclusion leaves an unexpected twist: artificial intelligence not only removes the access ladder for new workers, but also burdens the most veteran workers.​​ AI takes away opportunities for recent graduates. According to the data that they are being collected In different studies on the impact of AI on recent graduates, job offers for entry-level positions have been reduced between 11% and 20% in the last year. The reason: AI now takes over the basic administrative tasks that before these young people did. Furthermore, a elaborate study by researchers from the University of Navarra and IESE Business School, based on data from 138 million workers in the United States, reveals that in companies exposed to generative AI, average salaries fall by 4.5% compared to those not exposed. In the most affected, the salary drop reaches 7.7%, with the initial salaries of juniors decreasing by 6.3%, while those of seniors remain stable or increase slightly.​ Juniors produce more, seniors review more. The UpSlide report indicates that younger employees use the AI ​​tools their companies have implemented to improve their efficiency in distribution (24%) and research (22%) tasks. On the other hand, the use of AI for senior profiles implies an increase in the review and quality control tasks of their work. According to the authors of the study, while juniors have stepped on the accelerator producing more content and documentation with AI, seniors have had no choice but to dedicate more time in their day to review all that new AI generated content. “Rather than reducing workload, AI is displacing: it places more pressure on senior professionals, who must now review, validate and correct a growing volume of AI-generated content. This bottleneck is especially critical in high-value operations, where the margins of error are minimal,” the study’s authors underline. AI overloads seniors. The data indicates that 41% of the seniors participating in the study dedicate more than 11 hours per week to reviews, such as checking errors in the figures of financial presentations or formats. 83% of them recognize greater pressure on seniors for quality reviews, and 82% see more risk of those errors finally reaching the client. “While the technology is very impressive, it just doesn’t beat the professional touch. That’s why we’re making sure to create review checkpoints with humans in the workflow,” said Joshua Stolarz, Managing Director at KPMG in the study.​​ A model that makes the revision more expensive. Yes, as they point out the evidenceAI automates training tasks for junior profiles, concentrating review on seniors, one of the arguments used by the main CEOs of technology companies that the use of AI would allow the most senior profiles to free yourself from administrative tasks to focus on giving value to the products. By leaving them with the burden of reviewing AI-generated content, you actually bury them in more administrative work. If the trend pointed out by the study is consolidated, companies could opt for more veteran profiles in their hiring, which would reverse the dynamics of fire these employees when the cuts come. However, these more experienced profiles also they earn better salariesso many companies could rethink implementing AI if it means increasing your labor costs. In Xataka | Jensen Huang is clear: at this point no one should learn to program, AI will do it for us Image | Unsplash (Omid Ajorlo)

Taking a train to go to work in Barcelona or Girona has become an impossible mission

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Finding an AVANT train ticket to move around Catalonia has become quite a risky mission. Thousands of people who travel daily from Girona and Lleida to Barcelona face the impossibility of finding this type of ticket less than two weeks in advance. The high demand has overwhelmed the supply of places on high-speed services, forcing users to plan their trips weeks in advance or risk being left without transportation. The problem in figures. Demand for AVANT services has skyrocketed in recent years. According to Renfe data that share elDiario, in 2024 the Figueres-Barcelona line transported 1.52 million passengers, 43% more than in 2022. From Lleida, the increase was even more pronounced: 488,000 travelers in 2024, 65% more than two years before. This exponential growth has exceeded the capacity of the current infrastructure, creating a bottleneck that especially affects peak demand times. Why are AVANTs collapsed? The phenomenon has several causes. The main one is 50% bonus in the price of the passes implemented in 2022, which has turned these trains into an accessible alternative to the private vehicle. Added to this is the deterioration of the Rodalies and Media Distancia service, plagued by incidents and delayswhich has pushed many users towards high speed. Travel times are also a more attractive factor: 40 minutes from Girona to Barcelona compared to an hour and a half by conventional train, or an hour and a quarter from Lleida compared to more than three hours by Rodalies. The odyssey of getting a ticket. Daniel Blay, who usually takes the Girona-Barcelona train, account to elDiario that “on Monday of each week I try to reserve all the tickets for the following week, because if not you will run out.” For some critical schedules, such as the 7:25 train from Girona, there are no places available “within ten days or two weeks.” From Lleida, the situation is similar. Kevin Bruque, spokesperson for the Avant Catalunya Users platform, explained to the media that “you only find 15 days in advance to get a ticket if you are lucky.” Delays exacerbate chaos. In addition to the shortage of places, users report a significant increase in delays. More than 550 users have a Telegram group for the Girona line, coordinated by Blay, in which they already They have documented 292 delays longer than four minutes only in November 2025. Many of these delays occur on return journeys in the afternoon, when trains accumulate delays from long-distance services from Seville, Valencia or Madrid, according to the media. To solve this problem, many travelers demand shuttle trains that do not depend on connections with other routes, they assured from elDiario. The official response is insufficient. Renfe recognizes that the offer has grown from 1.4 million seats annually in 2022 to 2.4 million in 2024, but users maintain that frequencies have not been added during peak hours, where they are most needed. The operator attributes the delays to the improvement works on the Catalan railway network, especially in the future Sagrera station. However, passengers consider that these explanations do not solve the underlying problem: the need for more trains and more seats. More solutions. Among the urgent measures proposed by several of the traveler platforms, the 50% bonus should be maintained beyond 2025, since its disappearance would make the cost unaffordable for many workers and students. On the other hand, they demand an increase in frequencies and available seats. CCOO has proposed reusing Avlo service trains that are out of use to double the capacity of AVANT, an initiative that the Generalitat has included in its railway strategy under the name Catav, according to share the ARA Newspaper. In the case of Lleida, users also claim to be able to access the empty seats on the Madrid-Barcelona AVE trains that stop in their city, something that is currently only possible on four frequencies. What happens now? The Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, advertisement last week that the Government is working with the Ministry of Transport to improve AVANT services in Girona and Lleida. CCOO confirms that the ministry has agreed to study the proposal to reuse Avlo trains. It remains to be seen if the proposals end up reaching a solution that clarifies all this chaos. Cover image | Zarateman (Wikipedia) In Xataka | Renfe has three AVRIL trains lost and an even more serious problem: it still does not know when it will receive them

What he has seen leads him to propose that retirees go back to work

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Spain moves towards a demographic scenario that increasingly resembles that of Japan: fewer births, more longevity and a demographic structure that concentrates more and more weight at the top of the pyramid. This transformation is forcing Spain to reformulate the relationship between retirement and work with a new modality called reversible retirement, which aims to “recover” those who they have already retired to reintegrate them into the labor market and relieve pressure on the pension system. A country that ages rapidly. As they point out statistical dataat the beginning of 2024, Spain reached 48.6 million inhabitants and in 2025 we have already overcome the 49.1 million inhabitants. Of them, about 9.93 million were 65 years old or older (20.4% of the total), and about 2.95 million were over 80 years old (around 6.1%). This means that the demographic pyramid has reached cruising speed in the widening of its peak, while the base narrows at the bottom. decline in birth rate. In 2024, only 318,005 babies were born, which represents a historic low and 0.8% less than the previous year. as published The Country. With a life expectancy that already exceeds 84 years, the country faces a growth of number of pensioners and a progressive decline in the active population. The worst nightmare for a government. Japan: the canary in the mine. Japan has been facing a reality for years that now reaches Spain, so Spain can take advantage of its learnings to adapt its policies to the new demographic reality. The current situation in Japan is a snapshot of what awaits us in the near future. According to data of The Japan Times, In 2024, 29.4% of Japan’s population was 65 years old or older. The extension of working life is now almost a norm. In 2023 they worked 9.1 million Japanese over 65 years of age, chaining twenty years of consecutive increase. More than 33% of retirees between 70 and 74 years old were still active In 2022 and from 2021, companies are obliged to offer employment up to 70 years of age. This retention of the workforce beyond retirement age has allowed Japan to maintain its contributions, reduce pressure on pensions and mitigate the labor shortage experienced. Delaying retirement is not enough. Spain (as well as the rest of Europe) has been progressively increasing the legal retirement agea process that will culminate in 2027 with the ordinary age set at 67 years. However, the demographic data published by the Bank of Spain show that these measures, although necessary, are insufficient. The population that joins the labor market is inferior than the one leaving, and the constant drop in the birth rate implies that this trend will be accentuated in the coming years, so the balance between retirements and incorporations will continue to be insufficient, and the immigrant population He can’t even compensate for it. Reversible retirement: Spain is taking note. In July 2025, the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security presented the proposal for a Royal Decree that transforms the current flexible retirement to make it more attractive for people who have already retired. The reversible retirement proposed by the Government allows those who have already retired, return to the labor market without losing their status as pensioners or penalizing their pension, but rather increasing it while become active again. Its objective is clear: encourage work beyond the legal retirement age to compensate lack of labor that the labor market suffers and, at the same time, alleviate the growing spending on pensions. Working improves pensions. The Ministry’s proposal eliminates previous restrictions and allows make pension compatible with work employed and adds the novelty of being able to do it also on one’s own, as long as the beneficiary had not been self-employed in the previous five years. For employed employment, a working day for retirees of between 40% and 80% of that of a full-time worker is allowed. The pension is reduced proportionally to the working day: if someone receives a pension of 1,200 euros and works half-time (4 hours), they would receive a pension of 600 euros plus the half-time salary. He big change It is in the 10% and 20% incentives for those who return to work after six months since they retired. Continuing with the previous example, the compatible pension of 600 euros would increase by 10% (60 additional euros), reaching 660 euros plus your salary. If the working day were 70%, the increase would be 20%. The reform seeks make reintegration attractive, eliminating the feeling of penalty that until now discouraged this modality. In Xataka | The future of pensions has a price: millions of payrolls will pay a little more expensive starting in 2026 Image | Pexels (Andrea Piacquadio)

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