Spain has been below three million people for more than 13 years. This is a total of 13 years and 5 months. According to data published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, May ended with 2,922,991 registered unemployed in the offices of Public State Employment Service (SEPE).
After the financial crisis, the country had already passed the danger barrier of three million unemployed in December 2008. This was despite the high rate of job creation achieved between 2014 and 2019. True, however, is that in the worst period of the Great Recession in 2013, more than 5 million people were looking for work. This problem has remained in the labor market and has become structural with nearly half of those long-term unemployed.
Despite the fact that unemployment fell by nearly one million people in the past year, Spain is still at the top of Europe. It has twice the unemployment rate than the EU average and is still far from full employment. Remember that in 2007, the number of unemployed registered was 1.8million, just before the housing bubble burst.
This area has also set a new record: it has the lowest unemployed youth under 25 years old in history. It is now less than 200,000. The rest of the population is being impacted more than it. Yolanda Diaz (second vice president) stated that it is the first time that there have been so many unemployed young people in Spain. The figure dropped to 199.920.
The good rate of job creation above 5% has resulted in a cut of nearly 100,000 unemployed in May. This is a slightly lower figure than the May 2021 or 2014-2017 periods. According to data released by the Ministry of Social Security on Thursday, over 213,000 jobs were created in the fifth month of this year. This is in line with the strong growth seen in May.
Spain has now reached 20.2 million associates, a new milestone in its labor market. <<<>. Jose Luis Escriva the Minister of Inclusion stated that the conflict in Ukraine was a temporary and transitory episode that businesses see as a reason to hire.
As in the past, May also set a new record for hiring with a strong increase in permanent contracts and a decrease of temporary contracts. The historical series recorded more than 730,000 permanent contracts, which is five times the average percentage of the historical series.
The good hiring behavior resulting from the labor reform’s entry into force has its downsides. Social Security states that nearly half of new contracts are now indefinite. This is a stark contrast to the 9% average before the counter-reform. The peso has dropped slightly and, in May, the percentage of indefinite contracts was 44.5%, compared to 48% in April.
Moreover, nearly two-thirds of permanent contracts can be considered part-time or discontinuous permanent contracts. The full-time permanent contract is only 17.7% of total labor market contracts. There is also an increase in mortality in permanent contracts. In May alone, 37,000 people signed more permanent contracts than they had previously. This means that businesses are forced to use permanent contracts to meet their needs. Temporary, but they are terminated when the activity is over.
Fraud prevention is being emphasized. The Government will launch an “algorithm” that will immediately combat the fraudulent use of overtime in Spanish companies. It will also continue all existing campaigns. Yolanda Diaz (second vice president), announced the announcement during her appearance at the Labor Commission in Congress.
The Active Population Survey (EPA), for the first quarter, shows that in Spain, 6.6 million overtime hours are worked weekly and 27 million overtime hours per months.
“This is unacceptable. This algorithm will be used in the logic of technology for the defense of workers. “With a single click, we can control the fraud that we have,” the minister stated.
