Unemployment falls by 344,900 people in the last year

According to the estimates contained in the Active Employment Survey (Spanish acronym: EPA), drafted by the National Institute of Statistics (Spanish acronym: INE), employment fell by 184,600 people in the first quarter of 2014 on the previous quarter, compared with a fall of 309,200 people in the same period of 2013. This is the lowest decline in the first quarter of the year since 2008. 79,600 jobs have been shed in the last year (-0.5%). In turn, unemployment has posted a fall of 2,300 people, while it increased by 257,200 in the same period of 2013. In the last year, unemployment has fallen by 344,900 people, the largest annual fall since mid-2005. The total number of people out of work stands at 5,933,300, an increase in the unemployment rate of two tenths of a point to 25.9%, one percentage point less than a year ago.

According to the INE, the fall in employment has resulted in a quarter-on-quarter decline of 1.1%, which stands at -0.1% after having been seasonally adjusted. By sector, the fall in employment has mainly affected non-agricultural sectors, with losses of 126,000 jobs in the tertiary sector, 48,200 in construction and 42,200 in industry. In contrast, there has been an increase of 31,800 jobs in the agricultural sector. Compared with a year ago, the primary sector saw a rise in jobs of 92,600 and a rise in the service industry of 30,800. In contrast, the construction sector saw job losses totalling 123,000 and in industry by 79,900. However, industry saw a slowdown in jobs shed of 0.6 percentage points to -3.4% while the construction sector saw an increase of 2.4 percentage points to -11.5%.

As regards the professional status of those in work, the quarterly fall affected 164,000 salaried employees and 20,300 non-salaried professionals. On another note, the decline in employment was solely attributable to the private sector, which saw a decline of 195,800 people, while the public sector grew by 11,100.Year-on-year, the public sector saw a decline of 31,200 workers and the private sector by 48,400, with rates of -1.1% and -0.3% respectively.

In terms of employment stability, the year-on-year decline in salaried workers fell both for temporary contracts and permanent contracts. The number of workers on a permanent employment contract fell by 51,600 and on a temporary employment contract by 112,400. In year-on-year terms, the number of workers on a permanent contract fell by 1.9% - with a moderation in the fall of 0.5 percentage points - while those on a temporary contract increased by 5% (compared with 2.3% in the previous quarter). Following the publication of these figures, the temporary employment rate fell to 23.1% from 23.6%, although it has risen compared with the rate a year ago by 1.2 percentage points.

As regards the working timetable, those working full time fell by 176,800 in the quarter and those working part time by 7,800. Compared with the first quarter last year, a year-on-year decline of 0.9% was posted for full-time workers while an increase was posted of 2.1% for part-time workers. These rates represent a slowdown in the fall of 1.4 percentage points for the former group and a moderation in the growth rate of 3.2 percentage points for the second group. Following the publication of these figures, the weighting of part-time workers out of the total increased by 0.1 points in the quarter and 0.4% points on the same period a year ago, with the rate of part-time workers standing at 16.2%.

The active population continued with its downward trend, falling by 187,000 people in the quarter (-0.8%). Compared with the same period last year, it fell by 424,500 people (-1.8%), and by -1.2% on the previous quarter. The decline in the working population is mainly a result of a decline in the activity rate. This rate fell by 0.4 points to stand at 59.5%, due to the performance of the activity rate of men, which fell by six tenths of a point to stand at 65.5%, and, to a lesser extent, to that of women which fell by two tenths of a point to 53.8%.

Unemployment fell in the first quarter of 2014 by 2,300 people, compared with an increase of 257,000 in the same quarter last year. It is noteworthy that unemployment had not fallen in the first quarter of the year since 2005. Hence, the total number of unemployed stands at 5,933,300 people with the unemployment rate standing at 25.9% of the active working population. When seasonally adjusted by the INE, the quarter-on-quarter change in the number of unemployed stands at -2.2%, compared with -1.2% on the previous quarter. Compared with the same quarter last year, unemployment has fallen by 344,900, or 5.5%. The quarterly fall in unemployment has particularly affected women, with a total decline of 10,100, with the corresponding unemployment rate of this group rising by four hundredths of a point to stand at 26.6%. Unemployment among men rose by 7,700, with a corresponding increase in the unemployment rate of three hundredths of a point to stand at 25.4%.

In summary, the assessment of these figures is positive in general terms, despite the first quarter of the year not being favourable in general from a seasonal point of view. This first quarter of the year has seen a much smaller fall in the number of people in work from among all the first quarters of the year since 2008. The average annual fall in the period 2008-2013 was 342,000 jobs. Furthermore, the decrease in the number of people in work, as an annual rate, has fallen notably. Finally, unemployment has fallen - in contrast to each of the first quarters of every year since 2008, with an annual average rise of 366,000 people.

Hence, the positive trend of people in work and in the unemployment figures continues, which is expected to further improve in the coming quarters. A gradual increase in net employment creation is expected to be seen in line with the recovery in economic activity, which will end up in positive figures as a global average for the year. Similarly, unemployment is expected to continue to fall, to close the year with a rate noticeably lower than at the beginning of the year.