The year 2021 closes with 776,000 more jobs but 3.1 million people are still unemployed – CVBJ

Spain has 416,000 more workers than before the pandemic broke out, although a total of 124,000 people are affected by an ERTE

ALEJANDRA OLCESE

ELSA MARTN

EMILIO AMADE

Updated on Tuesday, 4 January 2022 – 09:00

After a catastrophic 2020 for the labor market, 2021 has closed with the creation of 776,478 jobs, which leaves the number of workers in the country at the historical record of 19.82 million, including the 124,087 people that at the beginning of 2022 are still affected by a ERTE.

Despite the good performance of the labor market, which has allowed reduce unemployment lists of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE, the former Inem) in 782,232 people last year, there is still in Spain 3,105,905 unemployed, 20.12% less than a year ago.

According to the affiliation and unemployment data released this Tuesday by the Ministries of Social Security and Labor, the month of December a year has just ended with a very positive trend for employment since May. Specifically, in the last month of the year, 72,553 jobs (the best figure since December 2018, when 78,540 jobs were created) and Registered unemployment fell by 76,782 people (the biggest decrease since the same month of 2016).

This favorable evolution has allowed Spain not only to recover in 2021 the labor market figures it had before the crisis, but to surpass them, reaching historical affiliation figures in all segments. In fact, there are now in the country 416,350 workers more than there were in January 2020, just before the pandemic broke out.

Employment has grown by all economic sectors (agriculture, industry, construction and services), and also both in the General Regime (+ 5.1% of employees) as in that of autonomous (+ 1.74%). On the other hand, the number of employees of the Special Agrarian System (-3.1%; 24,311 fewer workers), that of the Special Household System (-0.11%, 411 fewer household employees) and Coal workers have decreased. (-10.7%, 121 fewer employees).

All regions closed the year with a growth in the number of Social Security affiliates and, in half of the provinces, the increase in affiliates this year was over 4%, the most notable being the advances in Canary Islands (+ 6.43%), Balearics (+ 5.52%) and the Madrid’s community (+ 4.97%).

Job creation has been led by the sectors that had cut the most in the past year, such as Hotelier (17.77% more affiliates), the Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (16.24%), Information and Communications (8.78%) and Scientific and Technical Professional Activities (6.84%).

124,000 people in ERTE

Although the affiliation to Social Security has increased to 19.8 million workers, it would be necessary to subtract from that figure the 124,087 people that are still registered and count as affiliates but today they are affected by a File of Temporary Employment Regulation (ERTE) of total suspension or reduction of working hours and that they receive a benefit.

Of them, a total of 102,548 people are still affected by the so-called ERTE COVID, those that were put into practice in the face of the restrictions derived from covid-19 and that affected more than three million people in the worst moments of the pandemic. Most belong to the sectors of hospitality and tourism. A year ago, there were 520,000 more workers at ERTE COVID.

Of this total, workers are distributed almost 50% between those who are on partial suspension or reduced working hours (49,685) and total (52,863), according to preliminary data from Social Security.

To these we must add 20,124 workers at ERTE-ETOP (for causes not related to the pandemic), of which 30% belong to the sector of automobile; and others 1,415 workers are protected by special ERTEs by the volcanic eruption of La Palma, which represent 8.2% of the island’s affiliates and of which 40% belong to the accommodation and food and beverage services sectors.

140,000 fewer unemployed than before the covid

The figure of unemployed that the country has at the end of December 2021 is the lowest of that month of the year since 2007 and assumes that there are 140,142 unemployed less than at the beginning of the pandemic.

The youth unemployment It has dropped by 39.57% in the last year and affects 275,469 people under 25 years of age, this means that there are 180,413 less than a year ago.

The number of people targeted for unemployment has fallen in the sector services (-2.88%) and in agriculture (-3.02%), but it has increased in construction (+ 3%) and industry (+ 0.68%).

By region, unemployment has dropped in the last year in all communities. The greatest decreases have occurred in the Balearic Islands (-33.6%), Aragn (-25.9%) and Catalonia (25.8%); while the most moderate have taken place in the Valencian Community (-15.1%), Cantabria (-13.6%) and the Basque Country (-11.1%).

Joaqun Prez Rey, Secretary of State for Employment, has celebrated that “we are in unemployment levels prior to the great financial crisis of 2008 ” and that “2021 has made it possible to reduce unemployment in all sectors, especially the sector services which has suffered a lot “, and has especially highlighted the reduction in youth unemployment and female unemployment.

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