CEPYME warns of the weakening of the agricultural sector, which falls below one million contributors for the first time since 1995

2024-09-03 10:51:44

Labor market August 2024

Labor market data for August shows signs of weakness in sectors such as Industry, Construction and Education, with the fall in Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries particularly striking. In addition, the self-employed group suffers the seasonal decline again at each end of the summer season.

Both Industries (-18,357 affiliates between the general regime and the self-employed), Construction (-20,458), Education (-74,411) and Agriculture (-1,947) recorded a greater fall in affiliation than in August 2023 especially at the data for the agricultural sector, whose average membership fell by one million for the first time since 1995, to 991,285 contributors.

The Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing sector has been losing employment for 37 consecutive months and 90,000 fewer employees are registered than in August 2019 (-8.3%), according to the calculations of the CEPYME Study Service.

The heavy regulatory and tax burden and steep increase in labor costs, together with the increase in the cost of inputs and energy, have hit the agricultural sector harder than others. This is a branch of activity that is greatly affected by the increases in medals and contributions, as well as the interprofessional minimum wage (TBS) – which has risen by 60% since 2018 -, due to the greater inflexibility in labor contracting as well with the new environment. demands.

It is also worth mentioning that August ended again with a large loss of self-employed workers in month-on-month terms, specifically 10,135 less, which shows the permeability to the seasonal component of the self-employed workers group. he continues to suffer.

CEPYME reiterates the need to focus economic policy on a model that encourages more business activity and its development without barriers. The Federation of SMEs calls for tax and labor cost containment that encourages hiring, as well as measures that promote SME productivity. In addition, the Federation recalls that there is still a problem of unfilled vacancies, which stops business projects and restricts the options of SMEs to obtain a size. In this sense, CEPYME reiterates the need to act on active employment policies to achieve a better match between employment supply and demand.