The Asturian activity rate, the lowest in Spain, has increased for three quarters

2023-11-01 05:15:00

Asturias, the region with the lowest activity rate in the country since the great reconversions and adjustments of industry and agriculture – which removed tens of thousands of people from the labor market through early retirement –, chain three consecutive quarters with an increase in the active population (employed people plus unemployed people looking for work) and in the last quarter it was the second region (after the Valencian Community) in which the number of active people increased the most: it registered an interannual increase of 3.86% compared to an increase of 2. .53% in the country as a whole, according to the latest active population survey (EPA) of the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Compared to the previous quarter, the increase was 2.76% (1.27% in the case of the Spanish average), only lower than the progression experienced by the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community.

As a consequence of this change in trend – which will have to wait to know if it is temporary or consolidated – Asturias has placed its activity rate (active people in relation to the population of working age) at 51.68%. This is the highest ratio since the 52.36% in the third quarter of 2016.

Despite this improvement, Asturias remains behind Spain in this relevant indicator that measures the available labor force.. The Asturian participation rate (51.68%) is 7.73 percentage points lower than the Spanish average (59.41%) and is 15.54 points below the Balearic Islands, the community with the highest activity rate in the country (67 ,22%). The next region with the lowest participation in the labor market is Galicia (53.62%), which exceeds the Principality by 1.94 points, and the regions of Castilla y León (55.23%) and Cantabria (55.76%). , which surpass it by 3.55 and 4.08 points, respectively. All of them are territories in the Spanish northwest, which in turn is suffering from greater demographic aging and less economic dynamism than average.

In absolute numbers, The active population of the region ended the third quarter with 458,300 active people, including employed people and job seekers. This is the largest volume in absolute terms since the 459,500 assets that were recorded in the third quarter of 2017. Despite this, the Asturian imbalance is evident: Asturias contributes 1.9% of Spanish assets and 1.87% of the employed when it concentrates 2.1% of the unemployed in the country.

Improving the activity rate – a desirable and necessary goal – has as its consequently an increase in unemployment if the productive fabric is not capable of absorbing the increase in the population willing to work.. This is what just happened in Asturias in the last quarter compared to the previous one: unemployment increased by 13,400 people, but only 1,000 of them were due to the decrease in employment. The remaining 12,300 newly unemployed are hitherto inactive people who have started looking for work motivated by the need or the expectation of finding one. This phenomenon of increased unemployment due to the reactivation of the so-called “discouraged” usually occurs paradoxically when there is job creation.