A Barcelona academic has noted a trend for talent flight in that most Spanish of talent pools, the satin-clad, cloak-wielding matadors, or bullfighters.

Sky News reports that Vicente Royuela, an economist at the University of Barcelona, has found the total number of bullfights in Europe was 1,997 last year, half that at the start of the downturn in 2008, with signs suggesting a further 15% decline this year.

More than 50 European bullfighters are now plying their trade in Peru, where, according to Dikey Fernandez, an author for Agenda Taurina, Peru's ‘leading bullfighting guide’ quoted by Sky News: "There are more bullfights than days in the year. The market is jammed."

The news channel notes that there are 765 registered fighters in Spain, with Royuela saying that even pre-recession, only 10% of matadors got more than 20 fights a year, and half quit after six years.

Ethical objections and even a ban on bullfights in Catalonia, the region around Barcelona, as well as a depressed economy, have contributed to this downturn.

Read more on talent leaving Spain:

•‘Overseas recruiting demand for Brazil a tough nut to crack' (recruiter.co.uk, 3 June 2013)

•‘BMW ‘gives something back' by recruiting Spanish youths in Germany' (recruiter.co.uk, 30 May 2013)