Social Security exceeds 20.2 million affiliates for the first time in history after creating more than 213,000 jobs
It took more than 13 years, namely 13 years and seven months, for Spain to return to fewer than three million unemployed. In particular, May closed with 2,922,991 unemployed people registered in the offices of the Public Employment Service (SEPE), according to data released this Thursday by the Ministry of Labor.
The country crossed the dangerous threshold of three million registered unemployed after the outbreak of the financial crisis in December 2008 and, despite good job creation in 2014 and 2019, has never managed to lower that level. It is also true that at the worst moment of the Great Recession, in 2013, more than five million people were looking for work without finding it, a problem that has become entrenched in our labor market and has become structural, with almost half of the long-term unemployed.
But despite unemployment falling by nearly a million over the past year, Spain remains at the forefront of Europe, with unemployment twice the EU average, and far from full employment. It should be recalled that in 2007, just before the housing bubble burst, the number of registered unemployed was 1.8 million.
This reduction of almost 100,000 fewer unemployed in May – a figure slightly lower than that of May 2021 and even the 2014-2017 period – has been achieved thanks to good job creation, above 5%. For example, more than 213,000 jobs were created on average in the fifth month of the year, in line with other months of strong growth in May, according to data released Thursday by the Ministry of Social Security.
In this way, Spain marks a new milestone in the labor market with an average of more than 20.2 million affiliates. ««The labor market works very well in a context of great international uncertainty» boasted the Minister of Inclusion, José Luis Escrivá, emphasizing that businessmen see that this episode of the war in Ukraine and inflation is «really temporary and transient. » otherwise they wouldn’t hire anyone.
However, for the first time in the past seven months, employment stopped, albeit minimally, in May, traditionally the best month for the job market of the year, as companies prepare for the summer campaign. it cannot be excluded that the labor market will slow down if several economic organizations are already making progress in a context of economic slowdown.
All sectors have registered growth in registrations, but led by a large margin by the hotel industry, the sector with the highest activation for the summer. For this reason, employment has also grown in all communities, but with the Balearic Islands leading the way, the region with the most tourists.
And May also sets a new recruiting record: more than 730,000 new permanent contracts were signed, the highest figure in any month in the historical series, meaning that the average percentage for May in the historical series has to be multiplied by five.
Almost half of new contracts are permanent, 44.5% of the total, compared to 9% of the average that existed before the entry into force of the labor reform. However, only 17.7% of the total is full-time permanent (the highest quality contract): 291,308, while 264,524 is permanently discontinued and 174,595 part-time.
In the month of May, 730,427 new permanent contracts were signed, the highest figure in a month in the historical series. This meant that 44.5% of all new hires were permanent last month, compared to 48% the previous month. This percentage has fallen slightly for the first time since the entry into force of the labor reform, when permanent staff went from 14% to almost half of the recruitments.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
