In addition, the Principality lost 4,382 members of Social Security in one month, 1.18%, bringing the total figure to 368,115 workers according to information from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations.
Despite the sharp rise in unemployment and the drop in employment, the region continues to positive numbers in year-on-year comparison. Asturias has 2,060 fewer unemployed (-3.11%) and 1,552 more Social Security affiliates (0.42%) than in January 2022.
Unemployment grew in January compared to the previous month in all sectors, but especially in services due to the end of the Christmas season. In the tertiary sector, 2,125 more unemployed were registered, while in industry the increase was 87, in construction and agriculture 7, and in the group without previous employment, 116. By council, the largest increases in absolute numbers They were registered in Gijón (539 more unemployed), Oviedo (539), Avilés (260), Langreo (159) and Mieres (108).
Regarding affiliation, it decreased in all regimes except in the agrarian one. In addition, the number of self-employed, a total of 70,819, has fallen to “historic lows”, according to CEAT Asturias, the FADE self-employed organization, who pointed out that in one year more than 1,100 self-employed have been lost and that the activities that Commerce and hospitality have seen the most reductions in terms of affiliation, with a 3% and 3.3% decrease, respectively.
The regional government highlighted that January has always been a “bad month” for employment. “You have to see the trend and in year-on-year data Asturias has been growing employment for 22 months,” said Enrique Fernández, Minister of Industry and Employment.
Ignacio Garcia, director of Corporate Support of FADE, described the data as “worrying” since Asturias has registered the “most intense” growth in unemployment in Spain and in terms of affiliation “although the monthly reduction in Asturias (-1.2%) coincides with the Spanish one (-1.1%) in relative terms, the interannual behavior of the indicator is much better for the country as a whole ( 2.3%), than for Asturias, where it recorded a timid advance of 0.4%”.
Unions
The secretary of Trade Union Policy of the UGT of Asturias, Mar Celemín, highlighted the “weakness” of the Asturian labor market and the head of Equality of the CC OO, Úrsula Szalata, advocated a firm commitment to the industry, “which generates stable employment and quality” in contrast to seasonal employment in the service sector.
In the country as a whole, Social Security lost an average of 215,047 affiliates in January, 1.06%, while unemployment rose by 70,744 people, 2.49%.