45.9% of the unemployed in Spain have been looking for work for more than a year, and 30.2% have been in this situation for more than two years, a problem that affects women to a greater extent than men, since they almost double the rate of men.
This is one of the conclusions of the ‘Analysis of the labor market: unemployment, hiring and employment. October 2024’prepared by the Workers’ Union Union (USO), in which it defends that this volume of long-term unemployed should make public employment services rethink the labor intermediation they carry out and how to provide the means to be “more efficient” in the search and obtaining a job.
The report states that In October, 1,527,007 contracts were formalized, 9% more than in the same month of 2023. Despite the increase in permanent hiring, USO warns that it is suffering, as it has dropped from the values at which it was in 2022, after the labor reform, when reached 45%.
Of the contracts made in October, only 17.4% were permanent full-time. Most of the hirings were concentrated in part-time or discontinuous permanent modalities. In addition, two out of every five temporary contracts had a duration of less than one week, which, in the opinion of USO, shows the “growing rotation” and “precariousness” in the labor market.
The average duration of contracts increases by one day compared to 2023, up to 48 days, but it is nine less than in 2021. And 58.4% of temporary contracts last less than a month, which translates into fewer reduced contributions and salaries, “directly affecting the quality of life of workers and their future pensions.”
On the other hand, the report warns of the increase in discontinuous permanent workers, up to 97,210 compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 709,978. According to SEPE data, this represents an interannual increase of 15.9% compared to 2023 and 30.2% compared to 2021.
“From the USO union we denounce the lack of clarity in the official statistics and demand an urgent review of the methodologies used by the SEPE to account for both unemployment and real employment. It is essential that employment data reflect the true situation of the labor market to be able to develop effective policies that reduce unemployment and precariousness,” the report demands.
Furthermore, the union urged the Government to “put active employment policies in place that improve employability and ensure decent working conditions for all workers, especially those in a more vulnerable situation, such as the long-term unemployed and employees with temporary or part-time contracts.”
#unemployed #Spaniards #job #years
