Q1 of 2022 closes with significant employment growth in Spain
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Membership is almost half a million higher than prior to the pandemic, with particularly strong growth in innovative sectors.
The number of national insurance contributors in seasonally adjusted terms stood at 19,958,479 people in February, an increase of 23,998 compared to the previous month (0.12% more).
This is the highest level in the historical series, after eleven consecutive months of growth
The first quarter of 2022 closes with the creation of 119,000 jobs, despite the uncertainty generated by the war since 24 February. Compared to the previous quarter, employment has grown by more than 170,000 jobs, exceeding the growth recorded in the pre-pandemic years.
Moreover, three months after entry in force of the labour reform, its positive effects can be seen with greater intensity, with an increase in the weight of permanent contracts as a proportion of the total and an acceleration in the reduction of very short-term contracts.
Job creation in innovative sectors
March figures exceed the 472,615 people employed in February 2020, the month prior to the start of the COVID-19 health crisis. Growth in employment compared to the pre-pandemic level is widespread across sectors, with most sectors at higher employment levels than in March 2020.
There has been a particularly strong increase in innovative sectors such as Information and Communications (12.4%) and Scientific and Technical Activities (6.8%).
Furthermore, if employment is measured in hours worked, there is also a recovery compared to prior to the pandemic. By sector, growth has been particularly strong in Information and Communications.
Furthermore, the recovery of the pre-pandemic level of national insurance contributors is also widespread geographically. In 30 provinces, the level of employment is more than 2% higher than it was before the start of the pandemic, and in some provinces, employment has grown by more than 6%.
The month of March sees different stages
Employment has gone through different phases during the month of March, as shown by the daily Social Security enrolment data. In the first half of the month, strong growth was recorded, exceeding the average of previous years in most sectors.
From the middle of March, coinciding with various stoppages in some activities, there was a slight slowdown in some sectors (transport, manufacturing and construction), showing a reduced pace of growth than is usually recorded in March.
However, the last week of the month saw a recovery in these sectors and with it in employment as a whole, to the point of returning to a behaviour very similar to that of the years prior to the pandemic, as can be seen in the graph below.
Positive effects of labour reform are accentuated
March not only shows the continuity of job creation, but also accentuates the positive effects the labour reform is having on the quality of employment three months after its entry into force. Specifically, a further 1,021,278 permanent jobs were recorded in March than a year ago, with an acceleration in the growth of this type of employment.
This growth in permanent contracts is accelerating as 2022 progresses and is widespread across all sectors.
In March, 75% of the contributors had permanent contracts, which is 5 points higher than prior to the pandemic, and 25% are on temporary contracts. In the years before the pandemic, this distribution was 70% permanent versus 30% temporary. Meanwhile, temporary employment continues to fall. The measures included in the Labour Reform will contribute to this behaviour.
A decrease in the number of very short-term contracts signed at the beginning of 2022, following the introduction of a new disincentive on 1 January, can also be appreciated. In particular, the share of one-day contracts has fallen by more than 17 points, from more than 30% of contracts signed in a month in the years before the pandemic to 13%.
Contracts lasting between 2 and 7 days have also decreased from more than 30% of the contracts signed each month to 17.3%. Also noticeable is the increased survival of contracts. Whereas in previous years only 11.7% of contracts signed since the beginning of the year were still in force in March, this year this percentage has risen to 50.2%.
This trend towards a reduction in very short-term contracts following the disincentive introduced in the labour reform is becoming more pronounced as the months of 2022 progress, as can be seen in the graph below.
February closes with 80,000 workers on ERTE-COVID
The number of workers protected by ERTE linked to COVID-19, coming from one of the ERTE modalities implemented during the pandemic, closed March 2022 at 79,441 people, representing 0.5% of the total number of affiliates.
A further 17,162 workers are in other forms of ERTE not related to the pandemic. In both cases, this is a sharp reduction from the levels of October 2021, when the last extension of the ERTEs was implemented.
In March, the number of workers in ERTE-COVID under partial suspension (41,591) exceeded the number of workers under total suspension (37,850), according to preliminary data from the Social Security.
As of 1 April, the new permanent ERTE scheme, approved with the labour reform, comes into force and follows a similar model to the one in force until March, with exemptions from social security contributions. The new formulas prioritise the reduction of working hours over the suspension of employment with the objective, like the ERTE-COVID, of companies using this adjustment mechanism rather than dismissal in the event of economic or sectoral crises.
In addition, since 1 April, the sectoral RED Mechanism has been activated for travel agencies, as agreed in the last Council of Ministers, due to their differential situation with respect to the rest of the activities. This is the sector with the highest percentage of workers in ERTE (23%), almost five times more than the next sector with the most protected workers.
Self-employed benefits
More than 100,000 self-employed workers have benefited from the 90% exemption on their contributions for the March 2022 settlement period, provided for in article 1 of RD-law 2/2022. In addition, some 1,500 self-employed workers are still receiving some of the extraordinary benefits due to COVID-19 because their activity is still affected.
Without seasonal adjustment, an average of 19,834,504 workers were registered in March, 140,232 more than in February, in line with the usual growth in March in previous years.
Over the last year and without seasonal adjustment, the number of national insurance contributors grew by 913,602 persons, representing an increase of 4.83% in the average number of workers. ■