Thus, at the end of June, the total number of unemployed fell for the first time in 15 years from 2.7 million unemployed. Specifically, the first half of the year ended with 2,688,842 unemployed people, its lowest figure since September 2008, according to data published today by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.
The Department headed by Yolanda Díaz has highlighted that the decline in June was of a “generalized” nature, since it affected practically all economic sectors, all age groups and both sexes.
In addition, the Ministry has stressed that, with June, there are already 14 consecutive months in which unemployment is below the barrier of three million unemployed.
The drop in unemployment in June of this year, the fourth in a row after that of March, April and May, is higher than the drop experienced in June 2022, when unemployment fell by 42,409 people. On the other hand, it does not exceed the sharp decline in June 2021, when the return to normality after the pandemic led to a drop in unemployment of 166,911 people, the largest monthly decline ever recorded.
Since the beginning of the comparable historical series, in 1996, unemployment has fallen 26 times in June and has risen twice: in 2008, due to the financial crisis, when it rose by 36,849 people, and in 2020, due to Covid, when rose by 5,107 unemployed.
In seasonally adjusted terms, registered unemployment fell in the sixth month of 2023 by 11,257 people.
In the last year, unemployment has accumulated a decrease of 191,740 unemployed, which is 6.6% less, with a drop in female unemployment of 99,498 women (-5.7%) and a drop in male unemployment of 92,242 men (- 8.3%).
Work has also highlighted that since June 2020, three years ago, more than a million people have left the unemployment lists (-1,174,041 unemployed), which represents a decrease of 30.4%, “a situation that is has occurred despite the economic uncertainty generated by the war on European soil”.
Unemployment fell in June in all economic sectors, except in agriculture, where it rose by 220 people (0.2%).
The greatest setback was recorded by services which, encouraged by the arrival of the tourist season, lost 42,133 unemployed in June (-2.1%). It is followed by industry, where it decreased by 4,888 people (-2.2%); construction, with 1,688 fewer unemployed (-0.8%), and the group without previous employment, with 1,779 fewer unemployed (-0.7%).
Unemployment fell in June for both sexes, although more among women. Specifically, female unemployment fell by 30,710 women (-1.8%), compared to a drop in male unemployment of 19,558 men (-1.8%).
Thus, at the end of June, the total number of unemployed women stood at 1,624,317 unemployed, its lowest level since 2008, while the number of unemployed men totaled 1,064,525 unemployed.
By age, unemployment among young people under 25 years of age fell 1.9% in June, with 3,552 fewer unemployed than at the end of May, while unemployment among people aged 25 and over decreased by 46,716 (-1 .8%).
Work has highlighted that with the decline in June, the total number of unemployed under 25 years of age marks a record low of 184,491 unemployed, a figure that represents almost half of that in February 2021.
Registered unemployment fell in June in all the autonomous communities, especially in Andalusia (-8,760 unemployed), Catalonia (-6,359 unemployed) and Galicia (-5,410 unemployed).
In percentage terms, however, the most intense falls were recorded by Asturias (-4.6%) and Cantabria (-4.3%), while the least pronounced corresponded to Madrid (-0.8%) and Andalusia ( -1.2%).
As for the provinces, unemployment fell in June in all of them except Huelva, where it increased by 1,291 unemployed. The greatest decreases in unemployment occurred in Barcelona (-4,103 unemployed), Cádiz (-4,094) and Málaga (-3,487).
Registered unemployment among foreigners decreased by 8,556 unemployed compared to the previous month (-2.4%), until the total number of unemployed immigrants stood at 345,785, which means 17,156 fewer unemployed than a year earlier (-4.7%) .
For its part, the number of Social Security affiliates stood at 20,869,940 in June, the highest level in the series, after adding 54,541 employed compared to May with a month-on-month increase of 0.26%. It should be noted that the rise in June is the lowest since 2015.
In year-on-year comparison, growth was 2.56%, with 521,610 more contributors than a year ago.
In addition, registration in seasonally adjusted terms fell by 20,119 people in June compared to the previous month.
The Ministry has stressed that in the first six months of the year 448,065 jobs have been created, the highest number in a January-June period of the series and the second best semester in history after July-December 2020, which was ” strongly conditioned” by the end of pandemic restrictions.
In addition, the Department headed by José Luis Escrivá has highlighted that the current level of affiliation is more than 1.3 million higher than that existing before the start of the pandemic, in February 2020, of which three quarters are jobs created in the private sector.
At the end of the sixth month of the year, the contributor/pensioner ratio reached 2.39, its highest value in ten years, while income from contributions grew up to May (latest data available) at a record year-on-year rate of 9.7% (8.1% if fees from the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism, in force since January of this year, are excluded).
In June, 1,492,803 contracts were registered, 15.6% less than in the same month of 2022. Of all of them, 631,810 were permanent contracts, a figure 19.4% lower than that of June 2022.
In total, 42.32% of the contracts carried out in June were permanent, a percentage almost two points lower than that registered in May, when the proportion of permanent contracts was 44.25%.
Of the total number of permanent contracts signed in June, 242,351 were full-time, 22.5% less than in the same month last year; 251,967 were permanent-discontinuous contracts (-13.9%) and 137,492 were permanent part-time contracts (-22.8%).
Of all the contracts signed in June, 860,993 were temporary contracts, 12.6% less than in the same month of 2022.
In the first six months of the year, just over 3.42 million permanent contracts have been signed, 4.4% more than in the same period of 2022, and 4.23 million temporary contracts, 32.6% less .
