Unemployment drops by 49,260 people in May, to the lowest since 2008, driven by services

Permanent contracts decreased by 14.4% in the last year and accounted for 44.2% of the total, while temporary contracting decreased by 13.9%

June 2 () –

The number of unemployed registered in the offices of the public employment services fell by 49,260 people in May in relation to the previous month (-1.8%) driven, above all, by the services sector, which accounted for 70% of the fall of unemployment.

Thus, at the end of May, the total number of unemployed stood at 2,739,110 people, its lowest level this month since 2008, according to data published this Friday by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.

The Department headed by Yolanda Díaz has highlighted that the decrease in May is “very positive” and is part of a context of “quality recruitment and historical highs both in affiliation and in the active population.”

The drop in unemployment in May of this year, the third in a row after that of March and April, is lower than the falls experienced in May 2022 and 2021, when unemployment fell by 99,512 and 129,378 people.

However, this year’s decline has been greater than that registered in May 2020, when the pandemic caused a rise in unemployment of 26,573 unemployed. Excluding 2020, the decrease in unemployment in May of this year is the least significant since 2012, when unemployment fell by just over 30,000 people.

Since the beginning of the comparable historical series, in 1996, unemployment has fallen 26 times in May and has risen twice: in 2008, due to the financial crisis, when it rose by 15,000 people, and in 2020, due to Covid, when rose by 26,573 unemployed.

In seasonally adjusted terms, registered unemployment rose in the fifth month of 2023 by 11,963 people.

In the last year, unemployment has accumulated a decrease of 183,881 unemployed, which is 6.3% less, with a drop in female unemployment of 85,955 women (-4.9%) and a drop in male unemployment of 97,926 men (- 8.3%).

SERVICES DRIVE THE DECLINE IN UNEMPLOYMENT

Unemployment fell in May in all economic sectors, especially in the service sector, which lost 34,665 unemployed (-1.7%). It is followed by industry, where it decreased by 4,622 people (-2%); construction, with 3,896 fewer unemployed (-1.8%); the group without previous employment, with 3,576 fewer unemployed (-1.4%), and agriculture, which registered a decline of 2,501 unemployed (-2.3%).

Unemployment fell in May in both sexes and almost equally. Specifically, female unemployment fell by 24,540 women (-1.4%), compared to a drop in male unemployment of 24,720 men (-2.2%). Thus, at the end of May, the total number of unemployed women stood at 1,655,027 unemployed, while the number of unemployed men totaled 1,084,083 unemployed.

By age, unemployment among young people under 25 years of age fell 3.7% in May, with 7,208 fewer unemployed than at the end of April, while unemployment among people aged 25 and over decreased by 42,052 unemployed (-1 .6%).

Work has highlighted that the rate of decline in youth unemployment in April (-3.7%) has doubled that of general unemployment, which has placed the total number of unemployed under 25s at 188,043, a record low.

UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS IN ALL AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES

Registered unemployment fell in May in all the autonomous communities, especially in Andalusia (-6,521 unemployed), Castilla-La Mancha (-6,138 unemployed) and Galicia (-4,909 unemployed).

As for the provinces, unemployment fell by 50, led by Madrid (-3,673 unemployed), Malaga (-3,322) and Murcia (-3,067). On the other hand, it increased in Seville (+1,047) and Huelva (+660 unemployed).

Registered unemployment among foreigners decreased by 8,593 unemployed compared to the previous month (-2.4%), until the total number of unemployed immigrants stood at 354,341, which means 10,006 fewer unemployed than a year earlier (-2.7%) .

FIXED-DISCONTINUOUS CONTRACTS DECREASE BY 11%

In May, 1,412,061 contracts were registered, 13.9% less than in the same month of 2022. Of all of them, 624,853 were permanent contracts, a figure 14.4% lower than that of May 2022.

In total, 44.25% of the contracts carried out in May were permanent, a percentage more than one point lower than that registered in April, when the proportion of permanent contracts was 45.84%.

Of the total number of permanent contracts signed in May, 250,763 were full-time, 13.9% less than in the same month last year; 234,261 were permanent-discontinuous contracts (-11.4%) and 139,829 were permanent part-time contracts (-19.9%).

Of all the contracts signed in May, 787,208 were temporary contracts, 13.6% less than in the same month of 2022.

In the first five months of the year, just over 2.79 million permanent contracts have been signed, 11.8% more than in the same period of 2022, and 3.37 million temporary contracts, 36.3% less .

THE UNEMPLOYMENT COVERAGE RATE AT 64.9%

The Ministry has also reported that spending on unemployment benefits reached 1,721.2 million euros in April (latest data available), 5% more than in the same month of 2022.

The benefits paid since January of this year incorporate the increase in the regulatory base to 60% from the seventh month, compared to the percentage of 50% that had been applied since 2012 for the calculation of the benefit.

As a consequence of this, the average gross amount of the contributory unemployment benefit increased by 7.5% in April, up to 950.7 euros per month.

The average monthly expense per beneficiary, without including the agricultural subsidy in Andalusia and Extremadura, amounted to 1,036.5 euros in the month of April, which is 48.4 euros more than in the same month of 2022 (+4.9%) .

The total number of beneficiaries of unemployment benefits stood at 1,698,070 people at the end of the fourth month of the year, practically the same figure as in April of last year, reaching the coverage rate of 64.9%, compared to 59.5 % of a year earlier.

The benefit data is always one month behind the unemployment data, so the Ministry has published this Friday the unemployment figures for May and the benefit statistics for April.