Export and qualified employment
May 2010
The companies that go abroad create more stable and higher qualified employment...
An AFI (International Financial Analyst) and ICEX (Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade) study shows that internationalized SMEs are more productive and lead the economic recovery.
According to the study "Internationalization, employment and modernization of the Spanish economy", made by the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX) and International Financial Analyst (AFI), the companies that go abroad are the ones with a larger amount of employees and the ones that create more stable and higher qualified employment. The research shows that internationalized SMEs are more productive and competitive. Thanks to its geographic diversification, these companies can handle easier with declining domestic consumption and are the ones that mainly create economic recovery.
Exports, cooperation agreements, joint ventures and the creation or acquisition of companies in other countries are forms of internationalization that have net positive effects on domestic employment. It is estimated that in Spain there are currently 6.5 million jobs linked to the production of goods and services for export and foreign markets, which represents about 26 workers per million euros of exportable GDP.
Higher qualified and more productive
From the data obtained we can see that the number of employees of Spanish manufacturing export firms is five times higher than those that don’t go abroad to sell their products. Moreover, they spend more than twice as much on training. Investment in R&D is four times higher. The productivity per employee of exporting companies is 77% higher than the one of those companies that don’t export or invest abroad.
If we look at the data of the Perfil de la Empresa Exportadora, that ICEX carries out each year, in 2009 there was a notable increase of 6.4% in the number of firms that exported, despite the crisis. In addition, the number of exporters who have now been exporting for at least four consecutive years, remains at 40,000.
Due to the high level of competitiveness and innovativeness of these companies , Spain has been able to maintain its market share in the global foreign trade during the last years, compared to the large emerging economies like India and China. But export strategies cannot be improvised. They should be planned and structured as a permanent vocation business in foreign markets: a journey that most of the SMEs cannot walk alone and for which companies need the maximum institutional or expert support.
Evaluation of policies and institutional cooperation
In order to consolidate again the Spanish foreign sector as the engine of recovery of the Spanish economy, it is necessary to increase the export base with the greatest possible intensity and maintain the public support and the institutional development.
In this sense, one of the main recommendations of the ICEX- and AFI-report ICEX is to make a detailed evaluation of public policies, in order to support internationalization in all areas in which they develop: in the central government, the autonomous communities, as well as in their own institutional and business organizations involved in this process. All this might help to achieve a more efficient use of resources for the promotion of outdoor activity.
The internationalization of Spanish companies and the Spanish economy must play a role as a pathway for recovery of the Spanish labour market, fostering the creation of higher qualified and more stable jobs. At the same time, it can also promote the modernization of the Spanish economy, by increasing competitiveness and innovation.
An institutional strategy’s cooperation will consolidate all that has been achieved till now and lay the foundation for a sustainable future growth and welfare generator.
* Source: ICEX