The tourism sector is already responsible for one in five new jobs that are created in Spain, which, in turn, are much more stable jobs and leave behind the high temporary records that their contracts wielded, as revealed today by the Exceltur employers. The figures at the end of the second quarter show how employment linked to tourism closed June with 129,815 more Social Security affiliates than in the same month of 2019, which is equivalent to 19% of new jobs created in Spain this year.
Those responsible for the employers’ association have highlighted that “more and better hires are being hired” by consolidating the improvement in employment conditions. Proof of this is the drop in the temporary employment rate, which reached 37.8% in the summer of 2021 and, as a consequence of the application of the labor reform, today stands at 7.9%, a historical minimum coinciding with the beginning of the summer season. This value is practically half the Spanish average, where temporary contracts are 14.3% of the total.
Oscar Perelli, head of Exceltur Studies, has clearly ruled out that this is due to an improper calculation of discontinuous permanent staff, assuring that “the hiring of permanent personnel is increasing and there are better remunerations.” In fact, tourism is raising wages above the national average, 8.8% compared to 8.3% for the entire country. “As soon as there has been a breath of fresh air, employers have responded with an improvement in employment conditions,” he defended.
