2023-08-09 11:05:23
One in four new jobs created in Spain belong to the tourism sector. The number has been increasing as the sector has been recovering since the collapse caused by the pandemic and which in the second quarter of this year already had 2.86 million workers linked to these activities, 5.4% more than a year ago and 6.3% more than in 2019, according to the data on the tourist situation registered in the Active Population Survey (EPA) published this Wednesday by Turespaña.
This figure means that the sector has added almost 150,000 employees in the second quarter and they already constitute 13.6% of total employment in the Spanish economy. Specifically, between April and June, tourism-related activities registered 146,678 more employees than in the same period of 2022, which means that one in four jobs created during this period (589,000) were taken by tourism, 25% of the total. total.
In addition, while the unemployment rate in the national economy stands at 11.6%, the percentage of unemployed in tourism activities was 8.5% in the second quarter. Even so, it is half a point more than the rate registered a year ago, although Turespaña indicates that this is due to the increase in the active population in the sector, which has chained four consecutive quarters of increases. The percentage of unemployed is almost three points (-2.6%) lower than that registered in the sector in 2019.
There are more unemployed women (9.1%) than men (7.9%) in the sector, although in both cases it fell compared to the same quarter of 2022, when in the case of women this rate stood at 9.4%
Other positive news is that permanent contracts have increased by 18% in this period, the eighth consecutive rise to 80.4% of the total. In addition, workers with a temporary contract have fallen by almost 20%, so the temporary employment rate in the sector stood at 19.6% at the end of the second quarter, seven points below that of a year ago, when it was in the 26.4%.
In the case of the self-employed, they have decreased by 6% compared to 2022, reaching a total of 482,000, especially in the area of passenger transport (-8.6%).
A “mature and strong” sector
The Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez, valued these data from the EPA as “extraordinary” and considered that the evolution of the sector is “magnificent”. “It is necessary to highlight how job stability is growing thanks to the excellent behavior of the labor reform,” said the head of Tourism in an interview on TVE, who highlighted the increase in the arrival of long-haul tourists to Spain, such as Chinese and North Americans. , which allows tourism to “pull a lot of the economy in our country.”
Gómez also wanted to emphasize that the sector has shown “maturity and strength” after the shock caused by the pandemic in 2020 for its activity. “That tourism employment is going so well gives very good feelings for the rest of the Spanish economy,” said the acting minister.
In this quarter, the main tourist activities have experienced growth. Hotel and catering increased by 7.1%, due to the positive evolution of both food and beverage services and accommodation services. In travel agencies, the interannual variation was 0.4%, while in passenger transport it was 10.8%.
And by communities, those that registered the highest number of employed persons in the sector from April to June were Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands, which coincides with the most touristic points in this period.
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