CEPYME highlights the commitment of Spanish companies to employment despite the rise in costs and bureaucratic burdens

2023-06-02 13:42:29

Employment has marked an all-time high in May, reaching 20.8 million affiliates. In average terms, there are 200,411 more contributors than in April.

Although it is a good figure, it is basically supported by the typical seasonality of the month and, if we compare with the evolution of previous years, the number of job creation is lower in the interannual rate and shows weaknesses with respect to the trend registered in recent years in the same period.

For this reason, CEPYME calls for caution when analyzing employment data, since the company, especially the smaller one, has been suffering unfavorable conditions for its activity for months due to the incidence of inflation and the continuous increases in costs that have been approved by the Government, such as the increase of close to 50% in the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) in recent years, the increases in social contributions -bases and rates- and the increasing bureaucratic burdens.

Added to this context is a restrictive environment in terms of financing, due to the tightening of credit and its increase in cost, caused by the consecutive rises in interest rates, which negatively affect both investment and access to credit for companies with stress of treasury.

For CEPYME it is essential that the activity follow a homogeneous trend in the majority of the productive fabric to avoid an uneven recovery. For this reason, the Confederation emphasizes that, although Spain is already moving at the level of GDP prior to the pandemic, challenges persist in terms of productivity and competitiveness, affected by the new labor legislation.

In fact, the analysis by sectors and regimes uncovers weaknesses in the Spanish labor market. In general terms, seasonality makes all sectors improve, but some branches, which have been severely affected during the pandemic and the inflationary crisis, such as trade, despite marking increases in May, in year-on-year terms, in the The self-employed show a drop of 2.5% (19,500 fewer businesses).

As a whole, the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) shows a meager rise of 0.3% in May and remains stagnant, accumulating 10 months in a row with annual variations of less than 0.5%.

The General Regime gained 189,753 affiliates in May (+1.11%) and the rise in contributors has been widespread: hospitality (+67,315, +4.6%), administrative activities (+20,930, +1.5%), commerce (+16,009, +0.6%) and manufacturing industry (+11,136, +0.58%).

The drop in unemployment by 49,260 people has also permeated all sectors, reflecting the seasonality that the bulk of the drop falls on the service sector, with 34,665 fewer unemployed.

For CEPYME, it is essential that the policies of cost increases and bureaucratic burdens promoted by the Government cease and an environment favorable to business activity be created, which favors recovery in all sectors and territories, and begins a path of recovery of the competitiveness lost in recent years.