The number of unemployed people in the country grew by 103,800 people in the first quarter, the largest increase in that period since 2013 with the exception of 2020 -a year altered by the impact of the pandemic-, with which the unemployment rate, which in the previous quarter it had stood at 12.87%, it climbed to 13.26%, according to the Active Population Survey (EPA) published this Thursday by the National Institute of Statistics.
You have to go back ten years to see such a marked increase in unemployment in the first quarter of the year. Last year unemployment increased by 70,900 people; in 2021 it was reduced by 65,800; in 2020 it shot up to 121,000 people; And in the years prior to the pandemic, the increase in unemployment was much lower: 49,900 people in 2019, 29,400 in 2018 and 17,200 in 2017. In 2013, a previous record, the increase in unemployment was 257,200 people in the first quarter.
This increase in unemployment caused households that have all their active members unemployed to increase by 7,800, up to a total of 1,055,300.
For its part, employment in number of employed persons fell by 11,100 people, the lowest drop in employment in the first quarter since 2007 and much lower than that registered last year, when it fell by 100,200 people due to the impact of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the accelerated increase in inflation, especially in March, which unleashed a wave of uncertainty that affected the labor market. That year, Easter was also in April, as in 2023, with which homogeneous periods are being compared.
In 2019, for example, the last year of normality before the pandemic, employment according to the EPA fell by 93,400 people.
With this evolution, the number of workers in the country stands at 20,452,800, while the number of unemployed rises to 3,127,800.
The drop in employment occurs mainly in the private sector, where 8,800 jobs were lost in the first three months of the year, although there was also a drop in workers in the public sector, of 2,300 people. By sectors, industry, agriculture and construction are the main responsible for the decreases, since they had 11,200, 5,000 and 2,700 fewer workers, respectively. In services, 7,800 jobs were created.
The evolution of employment in the first quarter was heterogeneous by autonomous community. The Balearic Islands led the cuts (with 38,600 fewer employed), followed by Castilla y León (-21,400) and the Canary Islands (-13,600), while the regions with the highest job creation were Andalusia (66,300 more), the Community of Madrid ( 31,400) and Aragon (7,300).
Although employment ended the quarter with a fall of 11,100 employed persons, significant differences by gender and occupation can be observed.
Thus, male employment fell by 52,800 people (men who stopped working compared to the last quarter of 2022), while female employment rose by 41,700 employed.
By nationality, the number of Spaniards with a job fell by 37,900 people, while employment among foreigners increased by 26,800 workers.
By age, mainly young people under 25 years of age (16,000 fewer employed persons) and people between 40 and 44 years of age (-55,600) lost their jobs, while employment increased for those over 50 years of age -the largest increase, of 40,500 employed persons , was for those over 55 years old- and those between 25 and 34.
The data known today contrasts with the affiliation and unemployment data published monthly by the Ministries of Social Security and Labor, respectively. On the one hand, those of affiliation registered an increase of 80,000 average affiliates in the first quarter, which will be followed by a spectacular behavior of employment in April, according to the department of José Luis Escrivá, so that until April 14 the job creation would amount to about 250,000 people.
However, as reported by this newspaper, for the year as a whole, economists forecast a total job creation of 200,000 full-time equivalent jobs, which means that the employment created so far is not full-time or that it will occur a slowdown or even destruction of jobs in the second half of the year.
In fact, according to INE data, full-time employment decreased by 34,700 people in the first quarter, while part-time employment increased by 23,600. The percentage of employed people who work part-time rose 12 hundredths, to 13.72%.
On the other hand, the EPA serves to know how the number of people who are without work in the country really evolves -between those who are considered unemployed and the inactive- in a more realistic way than the unemployment data published by the Public State Service of Employment, since they do not break down how many discontinuous permanent workers are in a period of inactivity and, therefore, without work and even receiving a benefit.
In the first quarter, a total of 534,400 people who had been working in the previous period became inactive (here includes discontinuous permanent workers who stopped working), while the opposite happened to 429,100: they went from being inactive to working . However, the number of inactive people who instead of going into activity went directly to unemployment was higher: 718,800.
The active population -that is, those who are available and want to work, including those who do (employed) and those who have not found a job but want it (unemployed)- has risen in the first quarter by 92,700 people, to stand at 23,580,500 people.
This is the largest increase in the active population for a first quarter since 2008, when between January and March the population available for work increased by 150,500 people.
This increase was mainly due to the increase in the female labor force, since a total of 117,000 women entered the labor market -as workers or job seekers-, while the number of active men fell by 24,300 people.
By nationality, foreigners were the main people responsible for the increase in the labor force: the number of active workers increased this quarter by 7,300 among Spaniards and by 85,400 among foreigners.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
