The pandemic has brought many changes and there is no doubt that these changes will have an impact forever on the modus operandi the current job market, not only in the Algarve region, but throughout the country.
Suddenly, we were forced to work from home or in a hybrid format, services that favored physical contact and proximity were abruptly interrupted and the new generations saw their professional ambitions once again suspended by an economic and financial.
For that reason, the Thinking Algarve, atHink Tank of the Algarve Regional Delegation of the Order of Economists, carried out an online survey of more than a hundred recent graduates during the last quarter of 2020, with the aim of understanding their perspectives and ambitions in relation to the labor market in the Algarve, before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Subsequently, there was a debate on the study data and an exchange of ideas, with a panel of people familiar with the reality of the labor market in the region.
However, the results of this questionnaire revealed that the post-pandemic reality will abruptly change the labor market in the next decade. This is because, currently, in Portugal, the new generations are more qualified, are technically more prepared, are more connected to the world through the digital world and are curious to learn more in light of the constant global changes in the labor market.
But let us focus on the most relevant results of the study, where 36,6% of respondents expect to earn a salary between €700 to €800 when entering the labor market. And here, in this indicator, it is noticeable that young people are not unaware of the difficulty of earning an average salary in Portugal. According to Pordata data, in 2019, the average monthly salary of employees was situated at 1.005,10 euros.
Another interesting fact from the study is that 49,1% of respondents say that the ideal job would involve creating their own company, thus revealing that new generations are willing to undertake and create new businesses on their own.
Nevertheless, 50,9% said that the ideal job involves working for someone else, in an already established company, with solidity and stability from an organizational point of view, that is, without the initial difficulties that exist when setting up a company. or business.
In fact, a curious fact that results from this study is related to the five disadvantages most mentioned by the respondents when setting up their own company: dealing with the national legal and legal system, bureaucracy and administrative issues, dealing with financial institutions, investment of its own “pocket” and the absence of a salary limit.
Eight out of ten respondents indicated that career progression is one of the factors they most value as professionals, and here it is clear that. in the new generations, if the companies they work for bet on their career progression, through attractive development policies, with a great focus on progression and on permanent training, the employment relationship will be long-lasting, thus leading to more stable relationships.
Another interesting, but less positive, factor to take into account from this study, which was mentioned by 86,6% of respondents, is that the diversity of job offers in the Algarve is limited or very limited.
And here the big problem lies in the region's own economic structure, which is not diversified and is excessively specialized and focused on tourism.
However, there is a whole set of sectors that can, in a certain way, impact and reinvent the region's labor market, namely, the primary sector, the cultural and creative industries and the high and medium technology manufacturing industries.
It should also be said that 48,2% of respondents consider that there are no attractive companies to work in the Algarve. Here, the strategy to overcome this limitation may involve improving the financial, management and organizational literacy of some entrepreneurs and their companies, so that their businesses can gain scale, innovate and become robust and more sustainable medium or large companies financially
A curious fact that emerged in the online debate that took place to analyze the results of the survey was that, in some companies in the Algarve region, it is difficult to find human resources for less qualified positions, and this fact can put the economic recovery of the region in some sectors that depend on unskilled labor, so there is an urgent need to respond in the same way, similarly to qualified labor, which is the enhancement of human capital with development and development policies. ongoing formation.
Issues such as the future of the labor market, the economic structure of the Algarve region, the digital transition, or even environmental and climate issues, will be increasingly in the froth of the days.
But, to truly achieve change in what is going wrong, it is necessary the involvement and will of everyone, and for that, the think tanks Thinking Algarve hopes to continue to help in this mission of taking the Algarve to higher levels, striving to solve people's problems.
Author Ricardo Proença Gonçalves has a degree in Business Management and a postgraduate degree in Management of Health Units, from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Algarve.
It also holds a Executive Program in Management Control and Performance Evaluation by Nova SBE.
He is also a trainee member of the Regional Delegation of the Algarve of the Ordem dos Economistas.
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