CEPYME considers that the affiliation and unemployment data for the month of January reflect the effects of the economic slowdown on employment and the efforts of companies to face a situation of high uncertainty, derived from geopolitical tensions and the inflationary crisis, which is increasing its costs, both production and financing, due to the rise in interest rates, as well as labor, as a result of measures approved by the Government.
In this sense, CEPYME recalls that, in the case of SMEs, labor costs represent an enormous burden, which penalizes job creation. Added to the increase in social contributions approved in the General State Budget for 2023 is the announced increase in the SMI, which will determine a new increase in social contributions in companies. The Confederation recalls that, in the last five years, the Government has raised the minimum contribution bases by more than 40% and the maximum bases by close to 20%.
These increases especially affect SMEs, whose labor costs have registered growth in recent years of more than 6% per year, which has repercussions in a loss of competitiveness and ability to create employment.
The data for the month of January show job destruction and an increase in unemployment, in line with the usual behavior for the first month of the year, but with some nuances that reflect that the slowdown is accentuating the rate of job creation.
The drop in employment in more than 215,000 affiliates is greater than that registered in January 2022 (-197,750 affiliates). Total affiliation stands at 20.08 million people. Employment has fallen in all the autonomous communities, highlighting the decreases in Catalonia (-37,637) and in the Valencian Community (-31,549) and in practically all branches of activity, highlighting trade (-46,294) and hospitality (-45,935) .
Unemployment has increased by 70,744 people, well above the increase of 17,173 unemployed in January 2022, and this despite the increase, since the entry into force of the labor reform, of discontinuous permanent contracts, which are not computed as unemployed when stop being busy. The total number of unemployment reaches 2,908,397 unemployed.
On the other hand, CEPYME draws attention to the increase in the number of job seekers, which stands at 4,538,058 people, partly due to the increase in discontinuous permanent workers, and gives an idea of a less solid labor market than expected. that transmit some isolated data. In addition, remember that, in the last quarter of 2022, the number of hours worked fell for the second consecutive quarter and continues below pre-crisis levels (1% lower than the fourth quarter of 2019), so it is necessary to improve productivity in companies.
In this sense, CEPYME considers that the evolution of the labor market presents important risks that must be faced with measures aimed at improving productivity, facilitating business activity and the flow of people from a situation of unemployment to the sectors most in need of labor. At this time, there are not a few business projects that see their growth capacity limited and even their survival threatened due to lack of labor, especially in less populated areas.