Unemployment is reduced by another 268,000 people in the first year of the labor reform, although December leaves signs of a slowdown in affiliation
For now, the Spanish labor market has managed to overcome the economic effects of the crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, having closed the year 2022 with 471,360 more employees than twelve months earlier, in a period marked by the strong dynamism of employment practically since spring, with some monthly ups and downs like December. In total, Social Security closes with almost 20.3 million affiliates, the highest figure in all history.
In the last month of 2022, employment grew by 12,640 people, a much lower figure than that of the same month last year, when more than 70,000 workers joined some activity. In fact, it is the month of December with the lowest affiliation in the last decade, since 2012. The Ministry of Social Security argues that November was a month that “experienced a historical record” and that this rate of job creation cannot be so vigorous month after month.
In this way, the number of members of August 2021 is exceeded by about 815,000 people, when the pre-pandemic level of membership was exceeded. The average membership in 2022 was 20.1 million people, 3.9% more than in 2021 (+750,000). This rate of increase is almost one percentage point higher than the average for 2017-2019, a period of high job creation.
In addition, this has been the first year that the labor reform agreed between the Government, employers and unions is underway. For the Executive, “its positive effects on the stability of employment are evident in the strong impulse of indefinite hiring compared to the levels prior to the norm.” Specifically, affiliates with an indefinite contract at the end of 2022 are 2.3 million more than there were at the end of 2021. And even more, according to Social Security, young people have been “especially benefited” by this shift towards forms more stable contracts: three out of four under 30 now have a permanent contract (76%), compared to one in two before the reform (47% on average 2017-2021). In absolute terms, in December there were 2,013,724 young affiliates with a permanent contract, 807,836 more than a year earlier.
Less than 2.9 million unemployed
Registered unemployment data have also dropped during 2022 by closing the year with 2,837,653 unemployed, which means 268,252 fewer people “in an international economic context that continues to be marked by uncertainty,” according to the Ministry of Labor and Economy. Social. Since February 2021, the worst moment in labor matters after the coronavirus crisis, unemployment has been reduced by almost 1.2 million people.
In the specific case of the month of December, the number of unemployed people registered in the Offices of the Public State Employment Service (SEPE) has decreased by 43,727. By economic sectors with respect to November, registered unemployment decreased in the Services sectors -37,080 (-1.81%), Agriculture -4,922 (-4.16%) and in the group Without Previous Employment it decreased by -7,155 ( -2.82%). There is hardly any change in Industry, specifically 275 people (0.12%) and it increases in Construction, which points to 5,155 more unemployed people (2.32%).
The total number of contracts registered during the month of December was 1,189,917. Of this total, 464,152 employment contracts are of an indefinite nature and represent 39% of all contracts. In absolute terms, there are 290,368 permanent contracts more than in the same month of 2021. During 2022, a total of 18,310,343 contracts were signed, 4,201,878 fewer contracts (-18.7%) than in the same period of 2019, one of the expected effects, in terms of stability, after the implementation of the labor reform.
The self-employed are stagnating
However, the Spanish labor market leaves some fringes that still do not add up to all the statistics. For example, those referring to the self-employed, a group in which job creation has stagnated, with 3,328,403 employed. . There are barely five more self-employed workers than when 2021 ended. For Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA, with 2022 “a bad year for the affiliation of the self-employed ends, the worst since 2012.” «The average growth in the last decade is 30,400 more self-employed per year». And he considers that there has been a “debacle” in the commerce, hospitality and industry sectors.
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