Cities like Buenos Aires and London export the most talent to Barcelona, primarily to the digital sector, the creative industries and business services, according to Barcelona Activa’s Talent Map.

Barcelona Activa has updated the results of its Barcelona Talent Map, a living X-ray of the behaviour of professionals in the metropolitan area. According to the results, the professionals from the capitals of Argentina and England show the most interest in working in the city’s most dynamic sectors.

Barcelona also attracts professionals from the rest of Spain, especially from Madrid and professionals in Industry 4.0 and tourism. It also welcomes a considerable amount of talent from Valencia, especially professionals in the health sector. Job stability and a positive impact on society are still the factors that retain talent the most in sectors like public administration and the social economy.

Regarding professional mobility, the sectors with the greatest flux in talent over their volume in the job market are still the digital economy (16%), the social economy (12%) and business services (10%). In fact, the digital economy is currently attracting professionals from all sectors who are in the reskilling process and seeking to join the world of IT to earn better salaries and find more professional opportunities.

What are the competencies of Barcelona’s talent?

Sixty per cent of the talent in Barcelona is competent in digital and business skills, which have been in high demand by companies in the past year. These competencies, along with creative skills, are the ones that are transversal across all sectors. It is also noteworthy that in the past 6 months, scientific and engineering knowledge among women has risen by 6%, which is a very positive and encouraging figure aligned with the goal of promoting scientific and technological vocations among women.

On the other hand, the figures also reveal that Barcelona’s companies are increasingly asking for SQL (Structured Query Language) skills. This is a programming language used to manage relational databases, and leadership based on this asset is currently in demand. The results also reveal an increase in the demand for skills and knowledge in agile methodologies, like scrum or kanban, given companies’ need to be flexible and adaptable in today’s dynamic business environment.

What educational programmes are chosen the most?

The current photograph shows that 34% of Barcelona’s talent are in business and legal profiles, 20% are in scientific and technical fields, and 20% are in creative fields. There is a clear upswing in creative and digital disciplines.

The data also highlights law as one of the most cross-cutting disciplines across all sectors. The specialities in this discipline are on the rise, especially when partnered with digital skills. One example is computer law, which provides a crucial legal framework that regulates and protects the rights and responsibilities associated with technology and digital information.

Generally speaking, the educational programmes at Barcelona’s universities have a notable presence of women. They are in the majority of programmes aimed more at the economic sectors, like the social economy, education, health and biology. However, having a stronger female presence in tech degrees is still a challenge. For example, women still only account for around 30% of students at the UPC.