Date Published: 02/10/2020
ARCHIVED - 3.77 million unemployed in Spain at the beginning of October
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Jobs are being created faster than after the 2008 economic crisis but Spain still has the highest level of unemployment in the EU and Eurozone
September unemployment figures were published on October 2nd and can be interpreted as good or bad depending on whether your glass is half empty or half full.
Those with a half full glass will be satisfied with the official headlines which report that 84,013 new jobs were created during September, a record number of new jobs for September which is not usually the best month of the year for employment due to it marking the end of the summer season and this year unemployment fell by 26,329 people, the largest drop in the entire historical series, which began in 1996!
Almost half of the jobs lost during the covid crisis have been recovered and the number of unemployed in Spain is now 3,776,485.
Strong creation of jobs as number of affiliates to the social security system increases
The number of affiliates to the social security system increased by a record level during September. The previous record was 28,627 new affiliates in 2005, marked by the real estate bubble and a massive regularization of immigrants, but this year that figure has tripled, exceeding 84,000 . This strong job creation has come mainly from a return to work during the summer, but has also come from the education sector due to the contracting of an additional 10,000 teaching staff to cope with the covid measures in schools. Agriculture has also done well, adding 11,000 more affiliates than the same period last year. The hospitality sector “lost” 47,000 jobs, but that is roughly the same level as last year, as there is always a downturn in this sector at the end of September.
The number of affiliates to the social security system is now 18,876,389 people, which is still 447,062 less than a year ago due to the impact of the covid.
Sadly, the economy had been improving and was recovering ground from the previous economic crisis and creating new jobs, so the reality of the situation is that in the year previous to the onset of covid, almost 460,000 jobs had been created, a year ago employment had increased by 2.4%, so although employment is recovering at a faster rate than it did following the 2008 economic crisis, the Secretary of State for Social Security, Ismael Arroyo,admits that: "In interannual terms we are far from recovering lost ground."
Registered unemployment fell in 13 of the 17 autonomous regions; Castilla-La Mancha (-7,687; agriculture), Madrid (-5,387) and in the Valencian Community (-3,344).
On the other hand, it rose in the remaining four: Balearic Islands (3,359), Asturias (708), Extremadura (590) and Cantabria (500).
And now the glass half full.
Less than half of the jobs lost between March and April have been recovered; 950,000 workers lost their jobs during the covid lockdown, but since February, unemployment has grown by 530,000 people as a result of the covid pandemic.
In seasonally adjusted terms, the interannual unemployment level has increased by 696,774 people in the last year, a rise of 22.6%.
This week the Government and unions agreed an extension to the ERTE scheme which allowed businesses to furlough staff during lockdown. 80.29% of those on an ERTE at the end of April have now returned to work, but 728,909 people have not and are still on an ERTE rather than being included within the unemployment figures. A survey of business owners this week concluded that 60% of those still on an ERTE scheme would be made redundant when the scheme ends at the end of January.
This week a continuation of the special payments system for the self-employed was agreed, but there are 1.5 million self-employed workers who are registered with Social Security, but whose turnover has fallen by more than 70% since the start of the covid crisis.
Spain still has an unemployment rate double that of the Eurozone and more than double that of the EU.
The covid crisis is far from over.