Two out of three workers want a four-day work week, but 73% of companies do not see this as sustainable

This is the goal of the second deputy prime minister, Yolanda Diazif he manages to stay in Moncloa: start reducing work day as early as 2024, leave it at 32 hours a week, without any reduction in salary. Workers want, logically. But what about companies? Basically, they don’t see it as sustainable because they believe it would affect productivity and their profit margins.

This is confirmed by 73.5% of companies and 61.4% of the self-employed, according to the 26th edition of the report. Infoempleo Adecco: Supply and demand for employment in Spain Published this Tuesday. This opinion directly contradicts the aspirations of the employed and the unemployed, who in 66.6% and 50.7%, respectively, see the implementation four days of travel without reducing their wages. And those who do not see it as possible, it is not because they do not want to, but because they believe that the reason is mainly that companies are not willing to go down that road.

We will have to wait and see the results of the pilot project implemented by the Government at the request of Más País, which offers subsidies to companies that reduce the working day to four days while keeping the staff and their salaries. However, the reception of this initiative was very weak and only 41 companies requested this assistance.

In any case, the company’s expectations are not very rosy. Six out of ten predict that we will end the year worse than we started it, which is why they expect a drop in traffic, and even 70 percent fear that the increase in costs could pose a serious threat to the continuity of their business. Namely, 62 percent believe that they will have problems due to the energy crisis, and 41 percent are worried that consumption will not be reactivated due to inflation.

growth brake

In addition, more than 43% of the surveyed companies believe that the application of new labor reform that went into effect a year and a half ago will stunt its growth, and many others are worried that they won’t find the profiles they need.

However, despite these forecasts, only 12% of companies say they will implement layoffs in the next six months, and only 4% will apply wage cuts to face rising costs. Half are committed to maintaining their teams during 2023, and 31.7% are planning new hires.