Increasing layoffs force thousands of workers to start from scratch

Business restructurings, industrial relocations, green transformation, and the emergence of artificial intelligence are some of the reasons behind the rise of layoffs being seen across Catalonia.

Known as Employment Regulation Cases, ERO by their Catalan initials, recent filings have caused nearly 3,000 job losses in the first four months of this year, 36.4% more than last year.

Companies such as Nissan, Ficosa, and Nestlé have been some of the biggest corporations to cut jobs, forcing thousands to start from scratch.

“You have a future in a powerful company and, suddenly, they close, and it's very difficult to find a job," says Sergio Cobo, who lost his job at Quality Espresso. "They are destroying the industrial fabric of Catalonia,” he adds.

Cobo laments that he's gone from seeing a "future" in a strong company to now being out of work for “unjustified reasons.”

The coffee machine manufacturer with a 60-year history has entered bankruptcy with a debt of more than €100 million, and, according to the staff complaint, intends to move production to Italy, leaving 80 people unemployed, most of whom are over 50 years old and have been working for the company for more than 15 years.

“It’s awful. You can find work, but not with the same conditions, it will be logistical jobs, poorly paid, in shifts, unstable...”, Joan Blanco says, who has been on the staff for 40 years.

In recent months, there has been a continuous increase in EROs, the mechanisms for collectively cutting staff.

In the first quarter, there were 1,874 job losses, 53% more than in 2025, and layoffs were at their highest since 2021, the year marked by the outbreak of Covid.

The total number of files grew by 34%, which indicates that they affect a larger number of people.

During the month of April, the accumulated data increased to nearly 3,000 layoffs, an increase of 36.4% than those registered in the first four months of 2025, according to data collected by the Labor and Production Model Observatory.