T.C. | The number of registered unemployed in Spain fell by 59,149 people in March (-1.5%), its largest decline in this month since 2015, according to data published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Labour. With this decline in unemployment, which puts an end to five consecutive months of increases, the total number of unemployed reached 3,949,640 at the end of March.
The number of employed in the Eurozone in the fourth quarter of 2020 reached 157.9 million. This represents a loss of 3.1 million jobs compared to the same period in 2019, before the impact of the pandemic, the EU statistics office Eurostat has reported. In the European Union as a whole, the number of employed people in the fourth quarter of 2020 was 206 million, a figure 3.5 million lower than in the same quarter of 2019.
Randstad Research | Unemployment in Spain increased by 44,436 people in the month of February compared to January thus raising the number of jobless people to 4,008,789, a barrier not surpassed since April 2016, reflecting the restrictions impossed to deal with the third wave of the pandemic. Similarly, ther was an increases of 160,000 people in the number of furloughed employees, bringing the total to 899,383.
Bankia Estudios | Last year ended with the loss of more than 100,000 Spanish companies, a fall of 360,105 Social Security affiliates – the first decline in seven years – and an increase of 724,532 unemployed. It must be added 755,613 workers under temporary lay-offs programs and 349,342 self-employed receiving extraordinary unemployment benefits; in other words, more than 1.1 million people who, although technically still considered employed, are not actually working or are working reduced hours.
The labor market in Spain added 84,013 affiliates in September, the largest increase for this month in the series, while the jobless people fell by 26,329, also an historic high for the ninth month of the year, reported the Ministry of Labor today. With this figures the total number of unemployed reached 3,776,485 by the end of September. Even so, Spain leads European unemployment in August, with a rate of 16.2%, which is double than that of the Eurozone (8.1%), according to data published yesterday by Eurostat.
The labour market figures in July are very good thanks to the reopening of services and the return of tourism to Spain. Unemployment fell by 89,849 people, the first drop since February.The number of people still affected by temporary layoffs schemes (ERTEs) is now just over one million and the Social Security affiliation average membership is still rising. However, only 17% of the jobs destroyed have been recovered.
The results of the Labour Force Survey (EPA in its Spanish acronym) for the second quarter of 2020 continue to reflect the situation arising from the pandemic. Employment fell by 1,074,000 persons in this period. It should be borne in mind that this figure does not include those affected by a temporary lay-offs with suspension of employment. Meanwhile, the unemployment figure rose by by 55,000 people, with the unemployment rate standing at 15.33%.
The recovery in employment in Spain is proving to be a struggle at best, and a mirage at worst. The data shows that the trend in unemployment growth is slowing: unemployed in June rose by 5,100 people compared to 26,573 the previous month, 282,891 in April and 302,265 people in March. However, this month of June was the worst since 2008. The figure continues to exclude workers who are suspended from work or whose hours have been reduced as a result of a temporary layoff scheme.
Michelle Meyer & Alexander Lin (BofA Global Research) | The May jobs report was nothing short of stunning. The labor market recovery started earlier than expected as job growth rebounded by 2.5mn in May. In total, 22mn jobs were lost with a peak U-rate of 14.7%. The quick bounce in job growth reflects the “easy” rehiring. The path becomes more challenging thereaſter, with a long road to full employment.
The number of unemployed in Spain increased by 26,573 people in May, compared to 282,900 the previous month and -84,075 in May 2019. This is the worst May figure in recent years, but it is a vast improvement on previous months (up 282,000 in April and up 302,265 in March).This may be enough to raise some optimism in the Spanish labour market. The labour market data for May also reflects an increase of 97,462 people registered with Social Security compared to the previous month.