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Date Published: 05/05/2020

ARCHIVED - Worst April unemployment figures on record as Covid takes its toll in Spain

Murcia has a slightly better average than the national totals, but the figures are still a cause for concern

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Worst April unemployment figures on record as Covid takes its toll in Spain

It’s hardly surprising to see that the unemployment figures for April which were released on Tuesday morning, are less than positive, given the upheaval caused by the Covid-19 lockdown, but the national statistics inevitably are giving rise to concern about the immediate future for the Spanish economy following the Covid-19 lockdown.

Tomorrow parliament will debate a further extension to the state of emergency, and is likely to face fierce disagreement, as the battle to bring the virus under control collides head on with the economic repercussions of lockdown.

Normally March and April are positive months for unemployment due to the surge in business activity generated by the Easter holidays, but this year the increase in unemployment in the Murcia Region is 12.5% across the two month period (5,827 in March and 6,896 in April).

Out of the 17 autonomous regions of Spain, Murcia has the seventh lowest figures with 114,208 individuals registered with the state employment service, the SEPE, a rise of 6.43% for April, but nationally the picture is much worse, the average rise in unemployment being 7.97%, accounting for some 282,891 people, and bringing the national total of unemployed up to 3.8 million.

Nationally, the latest total is 3,831,203 unemployed, the highest since May 2016 and a rise of 282.891 in the last month alone.

The rise in unemployment in April is lower than that registered in March, when unemployment rose by more than 302,000 people, registering its highest rise in any month in the entire historical series.

Despite this, the rise in April this year is the highest ever recorded for April. The total this month exceeds that of April 2009 by more than 243,000 people, when in the midst of the economic crisis unemployment rose by almost 40,000 people.

Nationally, April usually follows the same pattern as Murcia and is a month in which employment is created, not jobs lost. Since the current system of measurement in 1996, there have only been increases in unemployment in April 2008 and 2009, in the midst of the economic crisis, with rises of 37,542 and 39,478 unemployed, respectively.

In April the number of those receiving unemployment benefits was 5,197,451 people, 136.5% more than in April 2019 and a new historical benefits record paid by the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE).

Nearly 3.4 million additional temporary redundancies across Spain

However, this data does NOT include workers affected by the system of temporary redundancies, the ERTE system, which is currently affecting 71.530 workers in the Murcia Region due to the Covid lockdown and 3,386,785 nationally.

Most of these workers were laid off on March 30th when non-essential workers were told to stop their commercial activities and there is no doubt that some of these individuals will not be re-employed when lockdown ends as many companies will have been rendered insolvent by the crisis.

The sectors worst affected by ERTE’s are Food and Beverage Services (726,137), Retail Trade (448,243), Wholesale Trade (210,959) and Accommodation Services (206,379).

The regions of Spain with the highest figures are Cataluña (678,684), Madrid (566,307), Andalusia (477,392) and the Valencian Community (349,634).

Throughout Spain, the Social Security system lost 947,896 contributors between March 12th and the end of April. Last month alone, 548,093 workers stopped making social security payments, the worst month for job losses since 2009, when the previous economic crisis was in its early phases.

There are now 18,458,667 workers paying into the Spanish state system.

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