Date Published: 05/08/2020
ARCHIVED - Unemployment rises in Murcia during July; national totals fall
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Murcia is one of only 3 regions of Spain where unemployment increased; everywhere else it fell
Image: Fruit processing plant in Totana. Archive.
July was not a good month for employment in the Region of Murcia, in spite of businesses re-opening after lockdown and the tourist sector increasing staffing levels in anticipation of summer trading ahead, the number of unemployed in the region rising instead of falling as is the norm, increasing by 1,309 to 117,238, which is 1.13% more than in June.
When compared to the 2019 figures the view is equally desolate; the coronavirus crisis has increased unemployment by almost 25%, with 23,420 more unemployed than in June 2019, a rise of 24.96%.
By sector, the services sector stands out, with a total of 75,624 unemployed, an area in which work is traditionally in plentiful supply during July. Following behind are industry (11,716), those without previous employment, ie young people (10,417), agriculture (10,390) and construction (9,091).
18,320 foreign nationals were registered as unemployed during July, an increase of 2,104 compared to June (12.97%) and 6,502 more in annual terms, which translates into 55.02 percent more in relative terms. The highest volume of unemployment among foreigners is concentrated in the services sector (9,600) followed by agriculture (4,326), without previous employment (2,648), construction (923) and agriculture (823).
The figures for Murcia contrast with the figures registered in the rest of the country, where unemployment fell by 89,849 people. In addition, last month 161,217 individuals began (or resumed) Social Security payments bringing the total of contributors up to 18,785,554.
Unemployment fell everywhere except Madrid, Murcia, La Rioja and Ceuta.
1.18 million workers remain in ERTE temporary redundancy situations
These data, as was the case in the figures published in March, April, May, and June, do not include workers subject to a temporary employment regulation file (erte) who reached 3.4 million at the highest point of the pandemic in April. At the end of July, two out of every three people included in the erte scheme during the covid lockdown had returned to work, leaving 1.18 million workers in an erte situation (712,000 fewer than in June).
Of the 950,000 jobs lost since mid-March due to the crisis, 40% (380,000) have been recovered.
However, the average number of Social Security affiliates is still at 18.78 million people, far from the 19.25 million affiliates registered in the month of February, before the pandemic began, and the 19.5 million in July of last year. In the last 12 months the system has lost 747,656 affiliates.