The hiring of teachers cushions the falls in hospitality and commerce in a September that barely created 18,300 jobs

The return to school has cushioned the destruction of employment in hospitality and commerce coinciding with the end of the summer season. According to data released this Tuesday by the ministries of Social Security and Labor, 18,295 jobs were created in September, while the lists of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) increased by almost 20,000 unemployed, despite unemployment remaining at a minimum since 2008.

Social Security registered an average of 20.72 million affiliates in September, after adding 18,295 contributors compared to the previous month. With this rebound, which raises the total number of workers to the highest volume in the historical series for the month of September, the Spanish labor market returns to the path of job creation, after the destruction of more than 185,535 jobs in August. In the final stretch of the ninth month, between the 20th and 29th, there were more than 20.8 million daily members, according to the ministry directed by José Luis Escrivá.

Even so, the increase in affiliates registered in September 2023 has remained below the more than 29,200 and 57,300 added in the same period of 2022 and 2021 respectively.. On the other hand, the data for 2019 improves, when only 3,224 jobs were created. You have to go back a decade to find in the historical series declines in affiliation in the month of September, a time in which the seasonal nature of the Spanish labor market is evident. In the last year, compared to September 2022, Social Security has gained an average of 544,508 affiliates, which has represented an interannual growth of 2.7%.

Job creation has been mainly concentrated in the education sector, which has gained an average of 85,817 workers in the last month. As usual, this increase coincides with the hiring produced due to the return to school and has made it possible to cushion the destruction of employment in commerce and hospitality, where the last blows of the summer season have left 40,024 and 32,223 fewer workers respectively than in August. . The Public Administration has also lost 39,503 workers in the last month. “Never has a month of September been so devastating for public employment,” the CSIF assesses.

In parallel, unemployment has increased for the second consecutive month in September, adding 19,768 people to register a total of 2.72 million unemployed, the lowest figure for a ninth month of the year since 2008.. The second vice president of the Government and acting Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has clarified on Twitter that it is a “month in which unemployment traditionally increases”, especially due to the end of the tourist season, although the rise in This year it has been slightly higher than in 2022, when 17,679 more unemployed people were registered in the employment offices than in August. In the last year, compared to September 2022, unemployment has decreased by 219,451 people, which represents a reduction of 7.46%.

As a result of the seasonality characteristic of the Spanish labor market, the increase in unemployment in September has been limited to the services sector, compared to the declines in construction, agriculture and tourism, where the number of unemployed has fallen respectively by 3,718, 2,100 and 184 people.. On the other hand, the services sector has added 18,820 more unemployed people in the last month and the group without previous employment, 6,950.

The push for female employment

In addition, job creation has also been concentrated on women. The number of Social Security affiliates has grown in September by 59,504 contributors, coinciding with the push for education, a sector where the weight of women stands out.. On the other hand, male employment has lost 41,208 workers, thus falling to a total of 10.98 million workers, compared to the total of 9.75 million employed women in Spain.. On the other side of the coin, female unemployment has grown by 11,422 women to 1.64 million, while the rebound among men has been somewhat less pronounced, experiencing an increase of 8,346 unemployed to a total of 1,081,605. .

Along the same lines, unemployment has also grown in September among those under 25 years of age, with 17,043 more young people unemployed than in August. In total, at the end of September, there were 205,000 people under 25 years of age without a job but looking for one, the lowest figure for a month of September in the last fifteen years. As with female employment, the Ministry of Inclusion has stressed that the behavior of youth employment is being “especially positive”, having grown by 10.4% compared to 2019, before the pandemic.

Among young people, the reduction in temporary employment from 53% to 22% since the entry into force of the labor reform more than a year and a half ago also stands out.. In this sense, the Ministry of Inclusion has highlighted that the September data “clearly” reflects the positive effects of the regulatory change, since the percentage of members with a temporary contract has been reduced by half, falling to 14% in September .

According to data from the Ministry of Labor, a total of 1.39 million contracts were signed in September – 16.2% less than in the same period in 2022 -, of which 44.7% were indefinite and 55 .3% temporary. Of the total of 623,439 permanent contracts, 249,078 were full-time, while 214,192 were permanent-discontinuous and 160,169 were part-time. Social Security estimates that there are currently almost three million more members with a permanent contract than in December 2021, the last month before the labor reform came into force.