31.4% of Barcelona’s digital talent is from abroad

Barcelona's digital ecosystem attracts more talent from abroad than ever. 1 out of 3 technology professionals that work in Catalonia’s capital come from other cities, according to the report Digital Talent Overview 2022 published yesterday by Barcelona Digital Talent.

London (11.44%), Madrid (10.15%), Buenos Aires (3%), and Sao Paulo (2%) are the cities that export the most talent to Barcelona. These professionals work mainly in cybersecurity (40.55%) and application development (40.31%).

The report also shows that the demand for digital talent in Barcelona exceeds pre-pandemic figures with an increase of 43% in 2021 compared to the previous year. This rapid recovery stands in strong contrast to demand for employment in the remaining sectors, still far from the pre-pandemic figures.

For every digital job offer, an average of 15 workers are available in the market; when it comes to the rest of the sectors, the ratio is 1 to 60.

Barcelona added 4,700 new digital professionals to its ranks, 2.3 times more than in 2020 when restrictions were still in place.

Catalonia gathers 100,000 digital professionals

Catalonia added 10,500 new digital professionals in 2021, hence reaching an annual increase of 12%. The region now gathers 100,000 digital professionals. The availability of digital talent has grown in all of Catalonia’s provinces, although Barcelona continues to concentrate 95% of the workforce as well as 97% of job offers.

On the other hand, more than 1,000 digital offers were published together in Tarragona (420), Girona (276), and Lleida (216) in 2021.

According to the study, women make up 30% of Barcelona’s digital workforce, one of the highest in Europe and higher than the ten European cities analyzed. In addition, Barcelona reaches gender parity in UX/UI design (50.68%).

The most in-demand ICT profiles

The report reveals that developers, UX/UI designers, and CRM/ERP consultants are the most available and in-demand (+53%).

Web/app developers, interface and user experience designers, and company software implementers (CRM and ERP) account for 75% of digital talent and 60% of demand.

On the other hand, cloud and cybersecurity specialists are the most difficult to find. Finally, the report also highlights that remote ICT job offers in Spain have gone from 4% in January 2020 to 14% by the end of 2021.

Source: Barcelona Digital Talent