The automotive industry continues to be one of the major industrial pillars of the Spanish economy, although the sector is undergoing an increasingly complex transition. Electrification, digitalization, supply chain transformation, and talent shortages are profoundly altering an ecosystem that for decades operated on relatively stable industrial models.
In this context, Aragón holds a particularly relevant position within the national automotive landscape. Although Catalonia, Andalusia, the Valencian Community, and Madrid account for the majority of sector employment, regions like Aragón and Navarra stand out for their high level of specialization and the structural weight that the automotive industry has within their industrial economy.
According to data collected by Randstad Research, Aragón accounts for approximately 5% of the total automotive employment in Spain, a figure that is particularly significant when compared to the demographic weight of the community. This data reflects the consolidation of an industrial ecosystem built over decades around vehicle manufacturing, the auxiliary industry, and a wide network of suppliers linked to both export and productive innovation.
The Spanish automotive sector employed 553,000 people in 2022 and reached 579,000 employed in the first quarter of 2023, already surpassing pre-pandemic levels with an annual growth rate close to 4%. Currently, about 3% of all employed workers in Spain have some professional connection to the sector, which confirms the strategic weight it continues to have within the national economy.
However, behind that aggregate recovery, significant internal transformations are beginning to be observed. The recent growth in employment primarily comes from activities related to the sale and repair of vehicles, which are experiencing year-on-year increases of nearly 7% and generating approximately 30,000 new jobs. On the other hand, vehicle manufacturing shows signs of greater pressure, with an estimated loss of about 1,800 jobs in the last analyzed period.
This duality is particularly relevant for territories like Aragón, where large industrial facilities coexist with an extensive network of dealerships, workshops, and auxiliary companies that sustain a substantial portion of employment linked to the automotive industry. While commercial and after-sales activities remain dynamic, manufacturing faces a much more demanding scenario marked by the transition to electric vehicles, automation, and the global reorganization of industrial chains.
The challenge is not only technological. It is also demographic.
The Randstad Research report confirms a progressive aging process of the sector’s workforce. Only 26% of the workers are under 34 years old, while those over 45 years represent 47% of total employment. Since the end of 2022, the group of workers aged 45 to 54 even surpasses the segment of 35 to 44 years, a clear sign that generational turnover is starting to become a strategic issue for the industry.
In Aragón, where the automotive industry maintains a particularly high industrial weight, this trend takes on an even more sensitive dimension. The community not only needs to maintain productive capacity and export competitiveness; it must also ensure the availability of technical profiles capable of adapting to new manufacturing, electrification, and industrial digitalization technologies.
However, there is one element that introduces a degree of optimism. Although the workforce is aging, employment among young workers is precisely where the highest growth rates within the sector are recorded. The automotive industry continues to have significant labor attraction capacity, especially in areas linked to new technologies, advanced maintenance, automation, and technical services associated with mobility.
Here emerges one of the major structural challenges for industrial communities like Aragón: training.
The study indicates that nearly 40% of the sector’s workers have not completed vocational studies, a shortcoming that limits adaptation to increasingly sophisticated technological processes. The transition to electric and connected vehicles requires new skills related to electronics, software, specialized maintenance, data analysis, and industrial automation.
However, educational evolution is beginning to show signs of change. University studies related to vehicle manufacturing have grown by around 13%, while vocational training related to sales and repair has increased by about 14%. This data reinforces the growing importance of industrial vocational training and continuous retraining programs as key tools to sustain competitiveness.
In Aragón, where the automotive ecosystem largely depends on the strength of its supply chain, the connection between companies, training centers, and public administration is shaping up to be one of the decisive factors for the coming years. The industrial transition is no longer played solely in production capacity but also in the speed of adaptation of human capital.
This issue is particularly relevant at a time when Europe is trying to strengthen industrial autonomy against Asia and the United States in areas such as batteries, electric vehicles, and technologies associated with mobility. Spain aspires to maintain its position as one of the major European manufacturers, but the balance between technological modernization and the sustainability of industrial employment will become increasingly delicate.
For Aragón, this transition represents both a threat and an opportunity. The community has a long automotive tradition, a consolidated industrial network, and export experience, but it also faces the need to update productive capacities and attract new generations of workers to an industry that bears little resemblance to the automotive sector of two decades ago.
The Spanish automotive industry continues to grow in employment and activity, but the sector is starting to transform from within. And in highly specialized territories like Aragón, this transformation will be not only industrial. It will also define a significant part of its economic and labor future.
