Spanish unemployment rose by 70,744 people in January, while Spanish Social Security shed some 215,047 contributors at the end of the Christmas sale season when thousands of temporary jobs came to an end, according to data from the Social Security Ministry.
According to data, the fall in January is similar to figures of previous years for the same month, leaving a total of 20,081,224 workers affiliated with the country’s Social Security system, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.
The fall in enrolment is slightly higher than in January 2022, when it stood at 197,750, but the figure is lower compared with 2021 (218,953) and 2020 (244,044).
Average enrolment fell in January in all sectors, with services leading the way with 191,843 fewer employed, followed by industry, with 10,585 fewer, the data showed.
By activity, hotels and catering suffered the biggest fall in enrolment, with 43,118 fewer workers hired following the end of the Christmas sales season, which also affected the evolution of employment in commerce in January compared with December 2022.
In seasonally adjusted terms, employment in Spain increased by 57,726, bringing the total of active workers affiliated with the Social Security System close to 20.3 million (20,298,620).
The Social Security Ministry highlighted in a press release that in January “employment has grown at a much higher rate than the average of the previous three months.”
It also pointed out that in January the percentage of members with temporary contracts fell to an all-time low of 15%.
The shift towards more stable hiring schemes is particularly noticeable among younger workers: “three out of four under 30 now have a permanent contract compared to one out of two before the reform”, the same sources added.
Unemployment among young people under 25 years of age increased by 7,753 compared with the previous month.
Spain has one of Europe’s higher youth unemployment figures (32%), far from the EU’s average (15%), according to Eurostat.
In terms of contracts, 1,200,749 were signed at the start of the year, of which 530,306 were permanent.
“The trend of stability in hiring continues to be consolidated”, sources at the Ministry said.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es)
Source: euractiv.com
