Spain has 2% more employees than in 2008, but they work 7% less

Never before have so many people worked in Spain (more than 21 million in the second quarter of this year), but what did happen before is that we worked longer than now, more hours. This is demonstrated by the INE Active Population Survey, updated yesterday with data from the second quarter of 2023, according to which, although the country now has 2% more workers than in 2008, before the financial crisis broke out, the total number of hours actually worked in the country is 7% below the levels of that time.

In total, the country has half a million more workers than then, but they work 51.23 million hours less than fifteen years ago. The total volume of hours worked in the country is closely related to the production achieved, especially in a country where productivity has barely grown in recent years.. If productivity grows, a reduction in hours worked is positive; but if it does not improve, the drop in hours is usually related to lower production.

Spain has not recovered until 2023 the total hours worked that were done in the country before the covid, hence the level of GDP prior to the pandemic has not recovered until this year either, Spain being the last in the EU to return to that level.

On average, workers now spend 33 hours a week at work (6 hours and 40 minutes a day), compared to the 36.5 hours they worked each week in 2008 (7 hours and 20 minutes a day).. This decline is mainly due to the boom in part-time work in the post-crisis years, which has not yet returned to its original levels.

The number of people working part-time has grown by 409,000 since 2008, compared to a rebound of just 96,000 people working full-time. All those people who work only a few hours a day contribute to the decrease in total hours worked.

The question is that not all of them do it voluntarily. 47% of the total have this type of job because they have not been able to find a full-time job, while others do so because they have family reconciliation problems (they need to work less to be able to care for children or other relatives), because they are training or because they have an illness or disability of their own.

The increase in sick leave -linked to aging- has also contributed to a decrease in hours worked. In particular, in the second quarter of this year, 1.67 million people with a job did not work any hours in the reference week (the week in which the INE pollsters call to do the survey), 61% more than in 2008.

In addition, the sectoral restructuring of the economy, with less weight in construction (a sector that is highly intensive in working hours) and more weight in services, has also contributed to the drop in hours.

Compared to the first quarter, the hours worked have grown by 1.5%, compared to the 2.9% that the number of employed has increased. According to experts, the evolution of hours is more relevant than employment when it comes to knowing how much the economy is growing.

“The growth of the total number of hours worked is more consistent with that of the GDP than the growth of the employed, so GDP growth in the second quarter should be similar to that of the first quarter, except for significant variations in productivity,” explained yesterday Rafael Doménech, head of Economic Analysis at BBVA Research. According to their seasonally adjusted calculations, hours grew by 0.5% in the second quarter, which is why they forecast an increase in GDP of that order, similar to the 0.6% registered in the period from January to March.

20% of work underutilized

Although the unemployment rate in Spain has dropped to 11.6% in the second quarter, its lowest level since 2008, alternative measures of the underutilization of work in the country can be used.

According to Florentino Felgueroso, a Fedea researcher who is an expert in the labor market, based on EPA data, if the discouraged are added to the unemployed, the rate rises to 12.1%, and if those who would like to work are added but are not looking for a job, reached 14.1%.

If part-time workers who work involuntarily are added to this group, the rate of underutilized personnel in the labor market reaches 19.6%.