The services sector registered a decrease in its turnover of 12.6% last November compared to the same month of 2019, moderating by 1.4 points the fall experienced in October (-14%), as reported this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
With the decline in November, services have seen nine consecutive months of year-on-year setbacks as a result of the pandemic and its effects on the economy.
The sectors most affected by this crisis continue to be those related to tourism. Thus, the largest year-on-year falls in billing occurred in the activities of travel agencies (-87%), accommodation services (-79.9%) and air transport (-70.1%).
Commerce cut its annual turnover by 9.4%, while other services registered a 18.6% drop in sales compared to November 2019.
Within trade, the greatest year-on-year decline in sales was experienced by the sale and repair of vehicles (-12.7%), followed by wholesale trade (-9.8%) and retail trade (-7.3%), who did not get back together despite the Black Friday campaign.
In the case of other services, the highest annual decrease in sales was recorded by the hotel industry (-59.7%), followed by administrative activities and auxiliary services (-28.5%); transportation and storage (-14.6%); information and communications (-4.4%) and professional, scientific and technical activities (-4.1%).
By autonomous communities, all of them cut their turnover in the interannual rate last November. The greatest decreases in sales in the service sector occurred in the regions most linked to tourism: the Canary Islands (-31.1%) and the Balearic Islands (-25%), followed by Asturias (-15.1%), Galicia (- 15%) and the Community of Madrid (-14.1%).
1.3% monthly drop
In monthly terms and in data corrected for seasonality and calendar, the services sector registered a monthly decrease in its turnover of 1.3% in November after having experienced monthly increases of 1.7% and 2.9% in September and October. respectively.
This decrease in monthly billing is due to the decrease in retail sales (-3.6%), since other services billed 3.1% more.
However, within the other services, the hospitality industry was the only negative sector: its sales in November fell by 12.8% compared to October, thus noting the effect of the restrictions adopted by the different communities to curb infections.
On the other hand, monthly billing increased in administrative activities and auxiliary services (+ 6%), in information and communications (+ 3.7%); in transport and storage (+ 3%), and in professional, scientific and technical activities (+ 0.9%).
Employment in services falls 5%
Despite the effect of the temporary employment regulation files (ERTE), employment in the services sector plummeted in November by 5% in the interannual rate, one tenth more than in October, highlighting the decline in employment in the hotel industry (-17 ,3%).
The annual employment rate decreased compared to November 2019 in all autonomous communities. The Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands once again recorded the greatest drops in occupancy, with falls of 14% and 10.7%, respectively. The smallest decrease occurred in Murcia, with a decrease in employment of 1.9%.
