Social Security has gained 522,000 contributors in the last year, bringing the total number of people in employment to over 21.8 million

The labour market has added 522,771 members in the last twelve months, reaching a total of 21,825,233 people in employment in the original series in November, the highest level for that month. This represents a year-on-year job creation rate of 2.5%.

Compared to October, there are 14,358 fewer contributors, a less pronounced decrease than that experienced in the same month in 2014 (-30,051), and well below the average for the 2017-2019 period, prior to the pandemic.

If we discount seasonality and the calendar effect, Social Security added 44,734 contributors in November, bringing the total to over 21.8 million. Specifically, it reached 21,838,253 contributors, the highest level in the series. In the first eleven months of the year, there were 474,846 more people in employment.

Daily contributor figures have remained above 21.8 million every day without interruption since 17 November, as well as on the 12th and 13th.

The number of women national insurance contributors remains at historically high levels, averaging 10,335,245 in November. This represents 247,902 more women in employment than a year ago. The improvement in employment among women is 11.9% since before the labour reform, 2.6 points higher than that of men.

The number of foreign workers remains at record highs and is approaching 3.1 million members. This group of workers represents 14.1% of all contributors.

"Employment in Spain continues to grow at a higher rate than in other European economies", explains Elma Saiz, "and it does so continuously in sectors with high added value such as Information and Communication and Professional Scientific and Technical Activities".

Data by age

By age, both youth employment and employment among older workers (55 and over) have grown by 23% since before the labour reform, which is 12.4 percentage points higher than the average, which has grown by 10.5% since then.

Highly productive sectors

In the last twelve months, most activities within the General Social Security Scheme have seen an increase in registered workers. This increase is particularly significant in Transportation and Storage (+8%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (+5.7%), Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (+5.1%), Water Supply (+4.8%), Construction (+4.7%), and Education (+4.1%).

Of note is the improvement in high value-added activities, such as Information and Communication (+3.3%) and Professional Scientific and Technical Activities (+3%), whose average contribution bases and level of stability are above average.

Compared to October of this year, the performance of Education (+2.27%), Healthcare Activities (+1%), Organisational Activities (+0.98%), Construction (+0.94%), Trade (+0.90%), and Information and Communication (+0.78%) is noteworthy.

Self-employed

The number of self-employed workers remains at record levels, above 3.4 million (RETA and SETA), with 3,424,479 self-employed workers, 38,817 more than a year ago, representing a growth of 1.2%.

Since November 2024, self-employment in the Information and Communication and Professional Scientific and Technical Activities sectors has increased by 10.5% and 4.7%, respectively.

The two sectors together account for 24,838 new self-employed workers, that is 64% of the employment created in this Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers in the last year. If we add Health and Social Services Activities, which grew by 4.7%, and Education, which grew by 5%, the percentage reaches 94.7% of the employment created.

Higher employment growth than neighbouring countries

The Spanish labour market (+10.6%) continues to show a higher growth rate than other European economies (Italy, +5.9%; France, +2.1%; Germany, +1.4%), based on data from the end of 2021, before the labour reform came into effect.

More stability

Since December 2021, there has been a major transformation in the types of contracts in our labour market: there are 4,211,387 more contributors with permanent contracts and 2,155,630 fewer contributors with temporary contracts. There are increasingly more stable jobs, with more rights and better salaries. The largest increase is among employees with full-time permanent contracts, with 308,632 more than a year ago. Meanwhile, part-time contracts increased by 85,961.

The weight of temporary workers stands at 12.2%, down from 30.2% in 2018. This improvement is even more remarkable among workers under 30 years of age, who have a temporary employment rate of 20.1%, compared to more than 53.3% seven years ago.

Non official translation