2023-08-03 03:02:21
Unemployment figures already place Spain almost in the place before the Great Financial Crisis, with 2.67 unemployed at the end of July -compared to 2.43 in 2008-, but the rate of growth of the labor market is beginning to give signs of exhaustion after the creation of only 21,945 new jobs in July –a traditionally auspicious month–, which point to a number of contributors that remains at 20.89 million, 0.11% more. However, the increase in this seventh month of the year is the least pronounced of all the months of 2023 and one of the lowest in the last decade. In addition, although the rise in affiliation contrasts with the drop of 7,366 contributors registered in the same month last year, the growth is much less pronounced than that observed in July 2021, when the number of workers rose by 91,451 people in full pandemic recovery. . Likewise, these affiliation data are the fourth worst since 2001.
Despite the fact that the acting Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, acknowledged yesterday that July has been “a weak month in job creation”, he preferred to highlight that the current level of affiliation exceeds the existing one by more than 1.3 million before the start of the pandemic, in February 2020, and that the contributor/pensioner ratio reached 2.4, its highest value in ten years. He also boasted along with the Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, that the unemployment figures “are showing, together with the levels of stability in employment, the positive effect of the reforms that have been undertaken, offering the possibility of having levels of employment unknown up to now and an improvement in the quality of employment”. A statement that the data does not support, rather the opposite.
80% of the permanent contracts signed in July – four out of five – were temporary, part-time permanent or discontinuous permanent. Although permanent contracts have a greater weight in contracting as a whole than a few years ago, the number of contracts of this type fell in July, since more than 61% of long-term contracts were signed part-time or discontinuous . Thus, the total number of contracts registered during the month of July was 1,431,383, which represents a drop of 224,132 (-13.54%) over the same month in 2022. Among them, 566,440 contracts have been registered of permanent work, which represents a decrease of 119,552 (-17.43%) over the same month of the previous year. In total, 39.57% of the contracts carried out in July were permanent, a percentage almost three points lower than that registered in June, when the proportion of permanent contracts was 42.32%. Regarding the duration of their workday, 220,297 full-time, 125,284 part-time and 220,859 discontinuous permanent. Compared to July 2022, the former have decreased by 64,955 (-22.77%), the latter have decreased by 33,866 (-21.28%) and the latter have decreased by 20,731 (-8.58%).
In addition, the hours worked did not rise in proportion to the hiring, so that all “the quality of employment that is generated is precarious,” said Raúl Bravo, deputy secretary of Economy, from the PP. In the same sense, Joaquín Pérez, general secretary of USO, stressed that this situation “has a direct impact on wages, since these workers will receive only part of their salary or will have income for one month, yes, and one month, no. Only a full-time, permanent job can be considered as such, unless the worker expressly wishes, who wants a stable, decent job that provides a living. And we don’t have that.”
But there are other shadows on the system’s horizon, since the monthly increase in average affiliates in July compared to June did not affect both sexes equally. Men gained 63,889 contributors compared to the previous month (+0.58%), while female employment suffered a severe cut of 41,945 employed (-0.4%). The average affiliation of foreigners also lost steam, which fell by 3,364 people. Likewise, affiliation has been especially destructive in agriculture, with 38,008 fewer employees; construction, 2,335; and the educational sector, which lost 110,705 jobs with the end of the course. Thus, this year’s sectoral affiliation is very far from the figures of 2020 and 2021 when, in a market marked by the pandemic, 161,218 and 91,451 jobs were created in this month respectively, it is only slightly higher than that of July 2019 and it is well below all the previous years up to 2012, in addition to showing an evident moderation in the rate of job creation of previous months.
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