MADRID – It is expected that there will be more premium payers at the end of October than in February 2020 and that job recovery will continue.
Unemployment in Spain will decline for the sixth month in a row in October. It is expected that 13% of the temporarily unemployed will return to work this month. And also, over 91,000 more premium payers will be registered with the Seguridad Social.
Minister José Luis Escriva of Social Affairs announced this. Furthermore, he expects 30,383 employees still with an ERTE scheme will be back to work by the end of October. The minister assessed the developments in the labour market as ‘extremely positive’, and said that the recovery increased even further in October.
With the expected 91,000 new registrations with the Seguridad Social at the end of this month, October is the third month with an increase of more than 80,000 premium payers. Between May and October of this year, this number increased by 631,000. At the end of October, a total of 19,651,324 contributors will be registered with the Seguridad Social, which is even more than in February 2020 (when there were 19,479,814), the last month before the pandemic broke out.
Extraordinary job recovery
Even if the 140,000 employees for whom an ERTE scheme is still in place (and who are still completely unemployed) are not included, the number of premium payers at the end of October is higher than in February last year. For Minister Escriva, that fact is an indication of an ‘extraordinary recovery’ in employment in October.
The minister also notes that not only the quantity of employment has increased, but also the quality. According to him, many employment contracts have been concluded for an indefinite period. Specifically, according to Escrivá, between October 2019 and October this year, 373,806 permanent employment contracts were concluded and 131,699 temporary contracts disappeared during the same period. Nevertheless, according to data from the Ministry of Employment, more temporary contracts than permanent contracts are still being concluded. Of the nearly 2 million employment contracts signed in September, 88.1% are temporary contracts.
Fewer ERTEs in the hospitality industry, more in the metal and car industry
According to Escrivá, there are now 208,847 employees who use this work protection mechanism. 67.1% of them are still completely out of work, the other 68,678 have partly returned to work. Most ERTEs have now disappeared within the hospitality and advertising sector. Whereas, this number has increased within the metal industry and the automotive sector. These sectors are experiencing the greatest impact from the current global resource scarcity.
