The number of workers registered with Social Security grows while the volume of people actively seeking employment decreases, however, the labor market begins to show the first signs of a slowdown in job creation in July, according to information of the data shared this Wednesday by the portfolios of José Luis Escrivá and Yolanda Diaz. The number of average affiliates is close to the goal of 21 million affiliates -reached in the second quarter according to the EPA- after adding 21,945 employed people in the last month, but this advance is considerably lower than that registered just a month earlier (54. 541) and those recorded in the same period of previous years, except for 2022 and 2019.
For its part, the number of unemployed people remains below 2.7 million and fell by 10,968 people in the last 31 days to reach the lows of September 2008, which is the fifth consecutive month in which it has been downward, although, it represents the least intense fall of all of 2023. However, it should be remembered that in the month of January unemployment increased by 70,000 people and throughout the year the evolution has been favourable, despite the fact that this is not felt in all sectors or territories. In the month of July, unemployment fell in Services (-7,126), Agriculture (-1,861) and Industry (-964), on the other hand, it increased in Construction (1,186), while the volume of people looking for their first employment is reduced by 2,203 people.
The number of people registered in the SEPE offices has decreased in absolute terms in a total of 10 communities, among which the most intense decreases are registered in Andalusia, the Community of Madrid and Galicia. On the contrary, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Basque Country lead the increases in the number of unemployed, despite the weight of tourism in these territories, especially in the first two. In addition, it is significant that, in percentage terms, the territories of Madrid (-3.32%) and Catalonia (-2.94%) are the ones that have reduced their unemployment levels the least compared to July 2022, while the Balearic Islands is the community that it has done so to a greater extent (-16.6%) thanks to the reactivation of tourism and it only grew in Melilla (3.2%).
However, July has not been a good month for the self-employed. The number of self-employed workers has decreased by 6,819 people in this period, as reflected in the data shared by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations. In other words, it falls in almost the same proportion that I had suspected in the month of June (6,665) and represents the first month in which the self-employed have been lost since January, in which the fall was especially intense (20,000) in line with the brake widespread job creation after the Christmas season. However, the balance compared to 2022 is positive by adding more than 3,000 compared to July of that year.
Permanent contracts fall to 39.57% of the firms
The number of contracts signed is declining as a result of the labor reform approved in 2021, which prioritizes permanent contracts and penalizes temporary contracts. In the last month, 1.4 million contracts have been signed, which represents a decrease of 13.54% compared to the same period in 2022, as celebrated by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy. However, only 566,440 of them are of an indefinite nature, that is, they represent 39.57% of the total, a percentage lower than that registered in previous months. In June this proportion was 44%. In addition, on this occasion, the total number of discontinuous permanent contracts exceeds that of full-time permanent contracts, representing 38% of all permanent ones.
The last major labor reform, not approved, breaks the classic trend of the Spanish labor market whereby the number of registrations and withdrawals from Social Security varies significantly on Monday and Friday of each week and on the first and last days of each month. On July 31, more than 186,000 workers were laid off, which may be a symptom that despite the reduction in contractual temporary employment, “effective” temporary employment has not decreased to the same extent. Despite the will to improve, from the departments of José Luis Escrivá and Yolanda Díaz they defend that they cannot completely alter the functioning of the labor market that is linked to the majority economic activity: tourism.
