By Andrea Hargraves 
The companies hired 24 new employees in 2024, which represents a 13% decrease compared to the previous year. The scarcity of candidates seems to be the biggest difficulty in recruitment, and the companies surveyed consider the Portuguese government partly unfavorable to the business sector.
This is one of the conclusions of the survey conducted this month by EGOR on 35 companies in the Porto metropolitan area, during the Atualiza RH event.
The majority of companies participating in the survey belong to Portuguese industry and related sectors, such as transport and logistics. Nearly 90% of respondents (89%) cite a shortage of candidates as the main barrier, while other difficulties include a shortage of qualified candidates, retaining talent, and high salary expectations.
Budget issues were identified as the main barrier to employment growth, with half of companies considering them relevant. Furthermore, about 22% of respondents indicated that the legislation also makes it difficult to hire new employees.
Despite the decline in hiring, more than 60% of companies announce their intention to hire in the next three months, estimating on average to hire at least 15 new employees in 2025, although 44% admit they have not done so yet. Expectations for next year.
The most valuable factors in a candidate profile, in order of importance, are: professional experience, interpersonal skills, and expected pay. The companies surveyed, on average, employ about 170 employees, half of whom have their teams in person at the workplace every day of the week.
In this context of discussing the state's general budget, businessmen are awaiting the directives that may come from the new budget regarding economic policies. However, there is a widespread feeling that the economic and political situation over the past 20 years has not been in favor of business, investment and entrepreneurship.
“Knowing that entrepreneurs are, by definition and also by nature, people with a very high degree of self-motivation, it remains important that society as a whole contributes, in general, positively to the creation of a favorable climate for investment, and to the success of the business sector, entrepreneurship, And new ideas to do more and better, as there is nothing stronger than a positive treadmill,” says João Lourenço, CEO of The Bridge Norte.