The turnover of digital services companies increases by 11%, but the rate of job creation falls to its lowest in three years. This is highlighted by the TIC Monitor report, carried out by the VASS Foundation and CEPREDE, which also shows that the sector continues to grow, with an average increase of 10% in the first eight months of 2024. Adjusting for inflation, the real growth of the business is of 6.7% between January and August.
The outlook for the business until the end of the year remains positive, although less optimistic than before, standing at +32.8 points (on a scale of -100 to +100), surpassing the EU average (+22.2 points ). This indicates that 66.4% of companies expect to increase their turnover until December.
“Companies continue to grow in activity, but they seem to have focused on making their operations more efficient until the end of the year, with more moderate job creation forecasts. However, the synchronization of billing and employment results in a billing per employee ratio that grows by 5.7% during the last twelve months. The digital services sector clearly aims to overcome the barrier of 500,000 affiliates in 2025”comments Antonio Rueda, director of the VASS Foundation and head of the TIC Monitor.
Billing for digital services
In terms of employment, hiring continues to increase, with almost 3,000 new members in September (totaling 484,809, 26,267 more in the last twelve months), although at a slower pace. The annual hiring rate (from August 2023 to August 2024) has dropped to 2.7%, the lowest level since March 2021. The average for the first eight months of the year is 3.8%, two points percentages less than in 2023 (5.8%). Therefore, jobs continue to be created, but at a slower rate.
The monthly ICT Monitor barometer, prepared jointly by the VASS Foundation and the Center for Economic Predictions, CEPREDE, anticipates an end to the year with solid growth, but more cautious in job creation
This scenario develops in a context of general caution. High interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty and technological changes, with AI as the protagonist, have slowed down new hiring in the sector, which had grown three times more than the rest of the economy in the last decade. Despite this, digital services companies continue to be one of the main job generators, ranking fifth in importance nationwide.
According to the employment climate indicator, which collects the opinion of business owners consulted by the European Commission in September 2024, there is a balance between companies that expect to increase their workforce and those that foresee adjustments. However, the indicator has fallen from +26.2 points to +2.0, placing it below the EU average of +11.7.
