The number of unemployed registered in the employment offices has decreased in November by 24,573 people compared to October, thus recording the best unemployment figure for an eleventh month of the year since 2007. Social Security affiliation also remains at record levels, above 20.8 million employed people. However, the reactivation of commerce with the preparations for the Christmas campaign, preluded by Black Friday, has not been enough to avoid the destruction of employment in the penultimate month of the year, mainly due to the collapse of the hospitality industry with the arrival of the low temperatures.

According to data released this Monday by the Ministry of Labor, November closed with a total of 2,734,831 million unemployed, the lowest number at this point in the last 16 years.. You have to go back to 2007 to find a month of November in which the number of unemployed people registered in the SEPE offices fell below 2.8 million.. In the last twelve months, compared to November 2022, unemployment has been reduced by 146,549 people, which represents a drop of 5.09%.

The decrease in unemployment registered in November is lower than that recorded in 2022 and 2021, when 33,512 and 74,381 unemployed people left the employment offices respectively.. Except for that period of post-pandemic recovery, the drop in unemployment last month has been the second highest in the historical series for the month of November, only surpassed by that of 2015.. Although the greatest decrease has been concentrated in the services sector – which has lost 17,335 unemployed -, the fall has been generalized, also recording 2,654 fewer unemployed in industry, 2,175 in agriculture and 1,072 in construction.

The evolution of Social Security affiliation has not been as homogeneous as that of unemployment, although, despite having decreased in the last month, it persists at record levels. According to data published this Monday by the Ministry of Inclusion, employment has remained at an average of more than 20.8 million workers in November, which represents the highest volume of affiliates for an eleventh month of the year in the historical series.. Never before in the month of November have there been so many people working in Spain. “The affiliation data for November reflect the strength of job creation in Spain,” said the new Minister of Inclusion and Social Security, Elma Saiz. In the last twelve months, Social Security has gained a total of 522,443 employees, which reflects a year-on-year growth in membership of 2.6%.

However, compared to the employment volume in October, membership has been reduced in November by 11,583 people, a greater drop than that recorded last year at the same time, when only 155 jobs were destroyed.. For its part, in 2021 and 2020 Social Security gained 61,768 and 31,638 workers, respectively.. The ministry headed by Elma Saiz highlights that this reduction in occupancy is “much smaller” than those recorded in the eleventh month of the year before the pandemic, between 2016 and 2019, which stood at an average of 36,000 people.

The decrease in the number of workers has not been generalized in all sectors. It has been especially concentrated in the hospitality industry, where 115,539 jobs have been destroyed coinciding with the end of good weather. Although less numerous, there have also been decreases in employment in the Public Administration and in the agricultural sector – with the loss of 3,717 and 2,583 jobs respectively – as well as among the self-employed, whose volume has been reduced by 1,070 people compared to October .

These falls have been partially cushioned by job creation in other sectors, especially in education, which has gained 38,024 workers, and in commerce, where Black Friday and the warm-up for the Christmas campaign have left 23,257 more workers than in October. They are followed in job creation by sectors such as administrative activities, construction, manufacturing industry and scientific and technical activities, all of them with more than 5,000 new jobs.

The monthly decline in membership has mainly affected women, among whom 7,949 jobs were lost in November compared to October, compared to a decline of 3,634 employed workers among the male population.. Even so, the number of women affiliated with Social Security continues at historic highs, with a total of 9,828,346 employed, still below the 10,977,728 male workers. The Ministry of Inclusion has highlighted that, compared to the level before the pandemic, female membership – which represents 47.2% of the total – has grown by 8.7% so far this year, three points more than the masculine.

The drop in unemployment in November has also been more pronounced among women. Specifically, female unemployment has been reduced by 15,962 people, compared to a decrease of 8,611 unemployed among unemployed men. In total, at the end of November, there were 1,645,093 unemployed women in Spain – its lowest figure for a month of November since 2008 – and 1,089,738 men. Likewise, the decrease in unemployment has also reduced the volume of unemployed people under 25 years of age by 5,588, reaching 205,979 unemployed, the lowest figure for a month of November in the historical series.

Less temporality

Regarding hiring, 1,356,293 contracts were signed in November, 4.8% less than in the same month of 2022. Specifically, 562,466 were permanent – 8.6% less than in 2022 -, of which 233,918 were full-time, 196,274 permanent-discontinuous and 132,274 part-time. “The labor reform continues to improve the labor market in our country, offering more employment opportunities and better conditions to workers,” highlighted the head of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, on social networks.. “One more month we see that the labor reform is beneficial for our country as a whole. The data is good, but we are not satisfied,” he added.

“Thanks to the labor reform, Spain is intensely improving the quality and stability of jobs, with a strong reduction in temporary employment, especially among young people,” said the Minister of Inclusion. The percentage of affiliates with a temporary contract has remained at a historic low of 13% in November, compared to the average of 30% that was before the regulatory change. Among those under 30 years of age, temporary employment has been reduced by 32 points, to 21%.