Brazil’s information and communications technology companies are facing a shortage of skilled labor. As RCR Wireless News reported previously, in January alone there were about 1,000 open ICT positions in the country.
The telecommunications market is also heating up, boosted by data consumption growth and the start of LTE implementation, and it is having a direct effect on the labor market.
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More professionals are needed. Similar to shortages facing the IT sector, telecom companies face difficulties in hiring both entry-level professionals and engineers, with the main concern on entry-level positions.
While some companies have chosen to invest in employee training, which also aims to reduce employee turnover, other companies are considering hiring foreign workers. Although it is not an easy option — involving a lot of paperwork, bureaucracy and visa costs, among other issues — there are cases where it appears that hiring a foreign professional is the best solution.
Frederico Costa, manager for the information technologies field at Randstad Professionals, told RCR Wireless News that he has already helped companies bring technical professionals from Europe to work on LTE deployment.
“I see an enormous difference between the Brazilian and Portuguese markets. In Portugal, for each open position there are about 20 to 30 really good and skilled candidates. In Brazil, there are only five, and they are not as qualified as those in Europe,” he said.
Costa assumed that it is fairly difficult to hire a foreigner; however, it has not prevented companies from making this choice.
“Usually they are big companies that have already defined processes for this. As for medium-sized firms, they prefer not to go through the process and tend to prefer local professionals, even with less experience,” he said.
According to Costa, the positions that most often require foreign hires are technical ones. “Companies will find it hard to locate a technical specialist for LTE with four years of experience in Brazil,” he explained.
Heloísa Avila, coordinator of immigration at law firm Trench, Rossi and Watanabe, said that Brazilian does not prevent foreigners from working in the country. The only question, she said, is that it is necessary to meet the demands of the labor ministry. “The government has rules to protect the local workforce.”
The bottom line is that a company that is hiring a foreign professional is in charge of all procedures to get that employee an appropriate visa. “The company should sponsor the visa, because it is tied to the company, which is also responsible for the employee in the country, assuming, for example, all medical and hospital expenses,” Avila noted.
Avila explained that there are several different kinds of visas and that the company should look for the most suitable one, adding that Brazil’s processes are similar to what are required by other countries. As an example, she said that to meet the demaind for the upcoming FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games, the government has sped up visa for workers that are directly tied to those events.
“I don’t think the Brazilian process is to bureaucrat. The government has to analyze visa applications to make sure it fulfills companies’ requirements at the same time it protects local workforce,” she added.
Among the rules, foreign workers can only make up one-third of a companies’ workforce.
Note: This story is part of a RCR Wireless News series on the Brazilian labor market.
