The school year begins with a drop in unemployment but no record employment

BarcelonaThe month of September marks the beginning of the school year and, as usual, it comes with a slight improvement in the job market. after the end of the summer contracts in AugustIn Catalonia, job creation resulted in 14,869 new Social Security registrations (up 0.39%), while unemployment fell by 5,293 people (-1.62%), according to data published this Thursday by the Ministries of Social Security and Labor, respectively.

This hiring boost is primarily explained by the education sector, which always adds workers during the ninth month of the year with the start of classes. In Catalonia as a whole, this sector added 21,245 more affiliations than in August, an increase of 9.9%. Even so, the Principality's workforce once again fell below 3.9 million employed (specifically, 3,863,651 people, the lowest figure for a September in the historical series). far from the records that were registered this summer thanks to the boost from the tourism industry. In fact, commerce (-11,000 new members) and hospitality (-10,000) were the main job losers in September.

To understand these figures, we must also look at the Barcelona region, as this was the only one where memberships grew. While around the Catalan capital, employment grew by 1.43% (+41,018 new workers); it fell behind in Girona (-3.62%), Lleida (-2.33%), and Tarragona (-1.81%). In the last year, Catalonia has added 76,460 people to the labor market, an increase of 2.02%.

The Secretary of Labor of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), Paco Ramos, has affirmed that this is a "strongly positive" start to the school year and has even given it a "high" mark. "We are maintaining the good results of recent years," he added. For the senior government official, these figures confirm the good health of the Catalan labor market and reaffirm the executive's objective of "making sure people find work and companies find people." Currently, there are 322,072 unemployed people in Catalonia, the lowest level for a September since 2007.

However, Ramos admitted that there are still pending issues, such as ensuring that industrial sectors generate more employment. He also highlighted the need to increase stability in hiring throughout the year to avoid the fluctuations typical before and after summer. On the other hand, the Secretary of Labor insisted that without immigration, the current growth rate would be unviable: "In the next ten years, nearly a million people will retire. The demographic balance indicates that replacement must be through immigration. Immigration is necessary to maintain our economic model."

More people with jobs

Across the country, the trend in social security affiliations was also positive, with 31,462 new workers added, an increase of 0.15%. The Ministry of Social Security, led by Elma Saiz, has highlighted that this is the largest increase in a September since records began, with the exception of the pandemic years. This means that there are now more than 21.6 million people working in Spain, almost half a million more than a year ago.

"Once again, the data confirms the strength of the labor market in Spain and confirms that the reforms have been and continue to be effective. If we compare the results with 2019, we see that there are many more workers—specifically, 2.3 million more—and the contribution bases have grown by 2.4 million. Another four million workers have permanent contracts," Minister Saiz stated in a statement.

Regarding unemployment, the number of unemployed in Spain fell by 4,846 people, bringing the total to 2,421,665. The ministry headed by Yolanda Díaz has emphasized that this is the first time there has been a decrease in this month since 2007, if we do not take into account the years marked by COVID-19. Compared to the same period last year, there are 153,629 fewer people (-6%) registered with public employment services.

In any case, this indicator only fell in 10 of Spain's 19 autonomous communities, with Catalonia leading this decline in absolute terms. In terms of percentage, the largest drop occurred in the Canary Islands, with unemployment falling by 3.22% in September.