Employment Barometer of the Social Third Sector of Catalonia

• In Event: Research and knowledge production on the third sector.

Abstract

The Employment Barometer of the Third Social Sector of Catalonia aims to know the status of the situation and developments in employment in the non-profit sector of social services and care. Therefore, in 2014 the Observatorio del Tercer Sector launched the first edition of the study. It is a quantitative study using an on-line questionnaire in which participated a total of 232 organizations with a minimum of four people employed. This research serves to highlight the capacity and potential of the Social Third Sector of Catalonia and to strengthen the recognition of organizations that are socially relevant as agents.

The Employment Barometer provides an updated view of the characteristics of employment in the Social Third Sector: recruitment trends, profile of the people employed, working conditions, etc. In addition, the data provided allow tracing the evolution of this information from the results obtained in previous studies around this issue: the research Employment in the Social Third Sector in Catalonia (2009) and the 2013 Yearbook of the Social Third Sector in Catalonia, also launched by the Observatorio del Tercer Sector. Finally, the Employment Barometer provides relevant information on the impact of the economic and social crisis on the organizations and on the expectations and the main challenges that faces the sector in the future.

Some of the main results of the research include:

- It has been estimated that the number of people employed in 2014 in the Social Third Sector of Catalonia is 85,645. This represents a reduction of about 15,000 people employed from 2011.
- 92% of the organizations in the Social Third Sector have fewer than 250 employees.
- The most common profile of persons employed in the Social Third Sector of Catalonia corresponds to a woman of between 26 and 35 years old, with secondary education, which takes less than three years in the organization, and which has a part-time permanent contract.
- The average lower gross annual salaries in the Third Sector organizations is € 14,407 and the average higher gross annual salaries is € 37,254.
- The rate of absenteeism in the Social Third Sector is the same as in the whole of the Spanish labour market (4.2%).
- The main future challenges expressed by the organizations include improving public funding, improving wages, increasing personnel hired and improving public procurement of care services.

Access to the publication: http://www.laconfederacio.org/enews.php

Authors

• Pau Vidal, Observatorio del Tercer Sector

• Martí Oliver, Observatorio Tercer Sector