2023-04-27 17:20:14
The Spanish labor market has started the year with a much lower indentation of jobs than usual in the first quarter, although with an increase in unemployed that has exceeded 103,800 more unemployed than when 2022 ended. The x-ray that the market leaves between January and March, a historically hostile period for an economy accustomed to fueling itself with tourism after Easter, reveals how companies -especially public ones- continue to hire, although there is also a rise in the number of citizens willing to seek work and, for now, they have not found it.
This combination of dynamism in employment, which the monthly data on affiliates had already been anticipating, contrasts with an unemployment rate that has increased again in the first quarter to 13.26% of the active population. The total number of unemployed registered by the INE stands at 3,127,800, 3.4% more than at the end of last year, which is the worst record in this period since the pandemic, surpassing those of previous years. Despite this rebound, it is still a lower reference than that of a year ago, when it was above 13.6%. But it continues to be much higher than the average for the euro area, with an unemployment rate below 8%.
Even with the rise in unemployed in the first tranche of 2023, in the last 12 months unemployment has decreased by 47,000 people, which represents a drop of one and a half points. The largest quarterly drops in unemployment occurred in Andalucía (–19,100), Comunidad de Madrid (–16,200) and Principado de Asturias (–6,700). And the largest increases were in the Balearic Islands (48,000 more unemployed), the Canary Islands (33,500) and Catalonia (20,000). In annual terms, the largest reductions in the number of unemployed occurred in the Canary Islands (32,100 fewer), Andalusia (-30,000) and Comunidad de Madrid (27,000). And the greatest increases were in the Valencian Community (34,600), Catalonia (13,000) and Castilla-La Mancha (10,300).
At the same time, the EPA reveals how the Spanish labor market maintains a better dynamism in terms of job creation than in any other quarter recorded so far since the previous great recession. Because the number of employed has decreased by 11,100 people until March, standing at 20.4 million employees.
Although the first quarter is usually negative in terms of job creation, this period has been much less drained of jobs than is the usual trend in Spain. In fact, it is the best first quarter of the economy in labor terms in the last 15 years. The pattern derived from an eminently seasonal economy has not been repeated as much this year compared to 2022, when, for example, 100,200 jobs were lost, a figure much lower than that of the two previous years, when 137,500 were destroyed in 2021 in the middle of the pandemic. and 285,600 in 2020. The average since 2016 was to leave some 87,975 employed by the wayside in the first quarter of each year.
This strength is explained, according to INE data, by the boost in public employment. Employment fell this quarter by 8,800 people in the private sector and barely 2,300 in the public sector. There are slightly less than 17 million workers in companies and more than 3.5 million employed in the entire administration sector. If the data from the last year are taken into account, employment has increased by 312,300 people in the private sector and by 55,700 in the public sector.
Employment increased this quarter in Services (7,800 more employees) and decreased in Industry (11,200 less), in Agriculture (-5,000) and in Construction (-2,700). In the last year, employment rose in Services (372,200 more) and in Industry (93,500) and decreased in Agriculture (-79,500) and in Construction (-18,200). compared to the previous quarter (–0.05%) and stands at 20,452,800. In seasonally adjusted terms, the quarterly variation is 1.16%. Employment has grown by 368,000 people (1.83%) in the last 12 months.
For the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the drop in temporary employment, derived from the labor reform, stands out: «Stability in employment is reinforced, with an increase of 1.5 million employed with an indefinite contract in the last year, and the reduction of the temporary rate to the historical minimum of 17.2%”. “The EPA data confirms the structural change and the dynamism of the labor market in Spain,” adds Nadia Calviño’s department.
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