2023-10-26 13:35:48
The Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME) celebrates the record number of contributors for the third quarter of 2023, although it considers that it has been boosted by the extension of the summer campaign. High temperatures and the commitment of tourism companies to lengthen the season have helped the service sector gain 138,700 jobs.
The Active Population Survey (EPA) for the third quarter of 2023 shows positive results in the labor market that are welcome and confirm the commitment of Spanish companies to employment despite the adverse situation – high inflation, high interest rates, rise in costs, narrowing of margins – in which this good data occurs.
The great responsibility of the company, despite the fact that the forecasts point to a slowdown and despite the impact of the inflationary crisis, is evident in the increase in employment in the private sector by 192,200 people, compared to the increase of 17,000 in the sector. public.
However, a detailed analysis by the EPA confirms the situation of economic slowdown revealed by other macroeconomic indicators. A loss of employment in agriculture and the destruction of the self-employed is detected, which is one of the first signs of economic slowdown.
The good progress of employment, furthermore, is uneven depending on the territory and the effect of the extension of the summer campaign is evident when reviewing that among the autonomous communities with the best performance are precisely those intensive in tourist activity, such as the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community and Catalonia.
As for the industry, with an increase of 98,800 employed people, it offsets the battered second quarter that the sector went through, with 64,500 fewer workers. In year-on-year terms, the increase is 15,200 employed in the industrial sector, less than a third of the growth in construction.
Special mention deserves the drama that agriculture is going through, a sector that, in addition to being battered by the drought, is facing with special difficulty recent regulatory changes in the hiring regime for discontinuous permanent employees, modifications in the CAP (European Common Agricultural Policy), as well as the sustained increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage (SMI). The agriculture and livestock branch of activity has accumulated six consecutive setbacks and requires a reflection aimed at reducing its bureaucratic, fiscal and labor burdens, given that it is a key sector for food, autonomy in the face of economic and geopolitical ups and downs, and a determining for the progress of Spanish exports.
CEPYME considers that the employment data must be examined with caution and that the next EPA will reveal whether the results of the third quarter are due to temporary factors, such as the lengthening of the tourist campaign in the case of services, or a specific recovery in the case of the industry, since other leading indicators demonstrate a decline in orders and energy demand.
On the other hand, the fall of 60,200 self-employed workers in the third quarter confirms the slowdown since they are the most vulnerable productive units in the face of the economic slowdown.
Furthermore, the strong increase in the active population – those willing to work, whether employed or not – points to variability in unemployment and employment rates and, in addition, demands multi-ministerial attention to the problem of vacancies that affects the Spanish productive fabric.
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