Jobs in Gibraltar – Guide to Finding Work in Gibraltar

Gibraltar, a British jurisdiction, is a small peninsula that is found off the south coast of southern Spain.

Nestled on the Strait of Gibraltar where the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea meet, it’s no wonder why Gibraltar enjoys a subtropical climate that is further influenced by the Sahara Desert in the northern part of Africa.

It’s the perfect location for those who are seeking to be mesmerized by its breathtaking landscapes, eclectic cultural influences, numerous outdoor activities and beautiful beaches.

Compared to areas up the coast such as Estepona and Malaga where people can enjoy 300 days of sunshine a year, Gibraltar has a microclimate where you can expect the sun to be blocked by a cloud that hangs over the rock and temperatures that drop along with an increase in the wind speed.

Despite the high cost of rentals in the area which is estimated to reach up to £900 a month for a 1-bedroom apartment, expats from Europe still choose to relocate in Gibraltar because of its non-existent language barrier. However, the majority would prefer relocating over the border where the prices are relatively cheaper and therefore more affordable. Gibraltar has a reputation for over-inflated prices at the supermarket because everything is imported. Gibraltar grows none of its own food so Mercadona in Spain is much cheaper for basic groceries but Gibraltar is cheap for diesel, cigarettes and alcohol.

Apart from the enviable outdoor lifestyle, Gibraltar has a number of different industries for the serious professionals who are looking to gain ground on their career while enjoying the peninsula’s holiday-like appeal.

Gibraltar also prides itself as not having any wealth tax, gift tax, inheritance tax and capital gains tax. Other “perks” include none charging of VAT and fully allowed mortgage interests.

Here, we will give you a guide on how to find work in Gibraltar and the kind of jobs you can expect to find particularly if you primarily speak English.

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Consider our other job vacancies in Spain which are listed on our jobs guide page.

Here is a great video guide to Gibraltar:

Should I Live in Spain and Work in Gibraltar?

The prospect of relocating to Gibraltar would normally lead one to contemplate into choosing whether it is better to find a place to stay in Gibraltar or it is more viable to rent a flat in Spain.

Whatever future plans you may have and the financial situation you are in, finding an apartment to rent in Gibraltar is not that impossible although you have to be aware that prices continue to go up in recent years to the point of almost being comparable to the prices in London.

Gibraltar is also known for its open border which you can easily navigate. This makes people who go in and out of the peninsula to easily consider Spain as their place of abode. You can find several little towns such as La Linea, San Roque, Alcaidesa and Santa Margarita which, due to their proximity to the peninsula, may influence your decision as far as relocating is concerned. When you do decide to stay at a specific town, it would mean that working in Gibraltar would always involve a daily commute. Unlike bigger cities however, you can simply walk (or have a short drive) over the runway while you feast your eyes with the lovely view of the sea for your daily dose of natural beauty.

Currently, there are about 20,000 people that are employed in Gibraltar which are made up of both the locals and foreign workers who would mostly travel from Spain by crossing the border. Around 9,000 people have been estimated to cross the border every day in order to get to work with most of the commute occurring without any issues. While some delays are occasionally seen, most are usually caused by Spain’s political posturing as part of its unending drive to assume its control over Gibraltar.

Because of Spain’s general lack of good job opportunities, declining employment quality and unsuitable wages, it’s no wonder why many people have thought of coming to Gibraltar as a way to find a more stable and professional working environment. Not only are they drawn to the peninsula’s Mediterranean way of life with a border that they can easily cross as many times as they wish, they also thrive on the “Britishness” of living and working in Gibraltar.

Salaries and Working Hours in Gibraltar

Do take note that if you go to Gibraltar for work but your residence is in Spain, you would then have to pay your income tax in Gibraltar. The hours of working in Gibraltar are not that different from the ones in the U.K. However, some of these hours can also be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. or they can be the opposite of the working hours during the summer months of July and August. Nevertheless, those who work in the government sector would usually have their working hours end by 3:30 p.m although government jobs do usually go to locals. You can also expect to see the working conditions and legal treatment of employees to be patterned after the U.K.’s system.

The salary that you can get will naturally depend on the type of industry that you are in. Jobs in the online gaming industry tend to have a very enticing pay range although the legal sector is deemed as lower than what the people in the U.K. are getting.

For your basic guidance, Gibraltar’s wages on average are 20 percent lower than the U.K.’s (sunshine tax). This is applicable to basic positions with PA job roles getting a home pay of up to £25K. Skilled roles such as those belonging in the IT sector would naturally command higher wages which can even be at par with the wages in the United Kingdom.

Some of Gibraltar’s locally based industries also seemed to have a consistent need on certain skill sets such as those with experience in Trust and those who had held Company Administration posts. Needless to say, candidates possessing these skill sets tend to easily land a job.

Work for English Speakers 2021

Since English is widely spoken in Gibraltar and is also the main language of instruction in Primary and Middle Schools, many expats find it easy to get around in the peninsula. However, it also has limited job opportunities despite the booming online gaming industry. In other words, don’t expect that you can change jobs easily when you go to Gibraltar. Plan ahead but make sure that it’s for the long-term.

For the upcoming sections of this page, we shall focus on the best possibilities on finding English jobs in Gibraltar. With a school system that’s patterned after the U.K.’s, you could simply start off trying to get an English teaching job although currently you won’t just walk into a teaching job, Gibraltar is overrun with unemployed teachers and lawyers as a teaching job is one for life. All teachers in Gibraltar are said to have been trained in the United Kingdom and are usually provided with a registration number from the DfEE.

If you have a background in gaming, Gibraltar is the perfect location since it is now considered as the heart of the online gaming industry with many of the biggest online gaming companies in the world choosing the peninsula as the base of their head offices. Other sectors that may have an ongoing demand for professionals include those that belong to the financial, insurance, IT, accountancy and legal nature.

Gibraltar Summer Jobs

Looking for a summer job in Gibraltar may not be as difficult as it may seem compared to other Spanish cities for the obvious reason that its inhabitants enjoy the warm climate for the most part of the year. While there is a good number of international companies found in Gibraltar, you can also find various working opportunities in casual places such as shops, restaurants and bars that are sprawled in the city’s commercial hub.

Just like in any other cities in Spain, most of the companies in Gibraltar would prioritize the “Gibraltarians” when it comes to employment opportunities. While the locals are schooled in English, they normally prefer to use Spanish in their conversation. Most Gibraltarians would use Llanito (pronounced as “Yanito”) since it is their vernacular language. Likewise, there are also those who belong to the Moroccan community where Arabic is spoken.

Online Gaming Jobs in Gibraltar

Many people who have come to Gibraltar in search of an online gaming job can easily see that the peninsula offers a number of varying opportunities in several sectors. If you are considering a career in the world of online gaming, then Gibraltar is the right place where you can find the best type of job vacancies that range from working in an online casino to doing Poker jobs and playing multi player games.

Some of the posts in online gaming that you may be interested to send an application to include football trader, senior casino operations executive, sports trading manager, gaming promotions manager and golf trader among others.

Bar Work in Gibraltar

There’s no doubt that Gibraltar has a number of exciting places to go out in the evening. While the larger hotels regularly offer their resident cocktail bars, you can also opt for more informal spots such as the traditional pubs or the exhilarating cosmopolitan wine bars. After you’ve had your favorite cocktail drink, you can continue to have fun at any one of Gibraltar’s nightclubs or try your luck at the Casino.

Being small in size, it’s not impossible to cover all of the corners of the peninsula in just one day by simply going on foot. Having said that, looking for bar work in Gibraltar can be an adventure as it will allow you to really have a good look around the peninsula. Moreover, you have the entire day (or evening) to get to know the establishment better and find out if you can see yourself as part of its workforce.

We recommend the following English bars in Gibraltar where you can seek for an employment opportunity.

1. The Clipper – 59C Irish Town, Tel. +350-200-79791

2. O’Reilly’s – Ocean Village, Tel. +350-200-67888

3. All’s Well – Grand Casemates Square, Tel. +350-200-72987

4. Star Bar – Parliament Lane, Tel. 350-200-75924

5. Lord Nelson Bar Brasserie – 10 Casemates Sq., Tel. +350-200-50009

Types of Work for Expats

If you’re coming from the United Kingdom and you’re looking for an English teaching job, Gibraltar is no doubt one of the best places to find a number of teaching opportunities. The peninsula has fourteen schools, a college and a brand new university with all of the teacher-based trainings occurring in the universities and colleges in the United Kingdom.

Gibraltar is located within a 3-hour radius of more than 10 most popular tourist destinations in Spain. With this in mind, many expats are open to the idea of going to Gibraltar for work while staying in a different city across the border where their homes are located. This allows them to stay away from the expensive residential prices in Gibraltar while still being able to keep their jobs.

ESL/TEFL Teaching Jobs

Gibraltar has two secondary schools which both offer a compulsory curriculum that is made up of teaching English, Spanish, Science, Mathematics, Music, Physical Education, Art and Geography. Children who are older than 12 years old can start joining the Secondary Education stream.

If you’re looking for an English teaching job in Gibraltar, you may try to send an application to any one of these international schools found in the peninsula.

Bayside Comprehensive School – Bayside Road, Gibraltar (www.baysideschoolgibraltar.gi)

Westside Secondary School – Queensway, Gibraltar (www.westside.edu.gi))

Official Rules and Regulations

If you’re a holder of an EU/EEA passport, you can easily work in Gibraltar without any issues.

On the other hand, non-EU job seekers are advised to secure a work contract before they can be granted with a working permit. However, most employers would issue a work contract only after they have tried every possible ways to find a Gibraltarian or EU national for the post but had failed to fill in the job post.

In Gibraltar, contract workers  are entitled to the Social Insurance Scheme which allows them to enjoy a number of benefits such as unemployment benefit, maternity grant, injury at work compensation, widowed mother’s allowance, widow’s pension, old age pension and death grant.

Workers can also take advantage of the so-called Group Practice Medical Scheme which provides superb health benefits so long as one’s social insurance contributions are up to date.

Where to Find Work

Gibraltar job websites and forums. There are a number of job sites and online forums that can actually help you in finding the latest job vacancies in Gibraltar. We also offer a similar service by providing a way for employers to enter important job details and opportunities that they may have for job seekers which you can see at the bottom of our page.

Recruitment companies can also be a good place to start when looking for jobs in Gibraltar as they tend to keep contact with some of the peninsula’s largest companies.

Some of the recruitment companies available in Gibraltar include:

• SRGEurope Intelligent Recruitment (www.srgeurope.com)
• Castle Hill Recruitment (www.castlehillrecruitment.com)
• First Choice Recruitment (www.firstchoice-temps.com)
• EyeSpy Recruitment (www.eyespyrecruitment.com)
• CRS Recruitment (https://www.crsrecruitment.org.uk/)

Gibraltar Resources

Visit Gibraltar is the official tourist board website of Gibraltar. The site offers valuable information that include things to do, things to see, eating and shopping, places to stay, upcoming events and more.

Gibraltar Travel Guide gives an extensive list of the various places that are recommended for sightseeing. While in Gibraltar, you may want to go and see some popular sightseeing locations such as the Alameda Gardens, the Casemate Square, the Great Siege Tunnels and the Moorish Castle.

Summary

Gibraltar is definitely one of the popular places among expats who are seeking better job opportunities in a place outside their home country. With a unique outdoor appeal, most of the expats who come to the peninsula are instantly drawn to its warm and friendly climate, something that makes them feel a bit lucky as they have been able to “escape” from the cold weather back home.

It is also believed that getting around Gibraltar can take as easily as one day given its small size which makes it a haven for those who love to travel around on their feet. With that being said, staying in the peninsula for a couple of months may just be enough for one to get acquainted with many locals and build connections that can be valuable in future job search.

If you don’t mind the daily commute, you can do what most expats are doing in Gibraltar wherein they simply find a house in a different city across the border and then travel to Gibraltar to work. Bear in mind that houses in Gibraltar are not only expensive but are also small in terms of available space.

Below are some of the main sections and frequently asked questions on finding jobs in Gibraltar.

• Is it expensive to live and stay in Gibraltar?
• Are there any jobs for Americans in Gibraltar?
• Are there any jobs for English speakers in Gibraltar?
• What types of work and job vacancies are popular?
• Where can I find jobs in Gibraltar?
• Part-time Work in Gibraltar
• Summer Jobs in Gibraltar 2021