Social Security adds 200,411 affiliates in May and exceeds 20.8 million employed for the first time

Hospitality and commerce boost employment in a month that sets a new record for affiliated women

MADRID, 2 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Social Security gained an average of 200,411 contributors in May compared to the previous month (0.97%), which led the system to exceed 20.8 million employed persons for the first time in its history, according to data published this Friday by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations.

Specifically, this sharp increase in employment, driven especially by the hotel and catering industry and commerce, placed the total number of Social Security contributors at an average of 20,815,399 people.

The rise in affiliation registered in May of this year is somewhat lower than the increases experienced in the same month of 2022 and 2021, when employment increased by more than 210,000 people, but it is above the data for 2020 (97,462 employed).

Not counting that year, affected by the pandemic and lockdowns, the increase in employed in May this year (200,411) is the least pronounced since 2016, when the system added 198,000 contributors.

In the last year, Social Security has gained 582,676 affiliates in average values, with an interannual growth of 2.9%, a rate similar to that registered in April (2.98%).

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of contributors to Social Security chained its tenth consecutive monthly increase in May after adding the system 47,883 employed compared to April (0.2%), up to a total of 20,709,078 affiliates, thus exceeding, for the first time time, the barrier of 20.7 million contributors.

The Ministry has also stressed that in the first five months of the year 468,184 jobs have been created, the highest figure in a January-May period in the historical series. In addition, the Department headed by José Luis Escrivá has highlighted that the current level of affiliation is almost 1.3 million higher than that existing before the start of the pandemic, in February 2020.

At the end of the fifth month of the year, the contributor/pensioner ratio reached 2.41, its highest value in ten years, while income from contributions grew until April (latest data available) at its highest interannual rate in the last 16 years. with an advance of 9.3%.

The monthly increase in average affiliates in May was noted in both sexes, although somewhat more among men, who gained 104,111 contributors in the month compared to April (0.95%), compared to an increase in female employment of 96,299 employed ( 1 %).

With this rise, the number of working women stood at 9,822,883 affiliates at the end of May, a new all-time record, while the number of employed men ended the fifth month of the year at 10,992,516 contributors.

The average affiliation of foreigners is also at record levels, which in May grew by 74,310 contributors, 2.8% compared to the previous month, to stand at 2,680,993 employed.

By schemes, the General, the most numerous in the system, gained 189,753 average affiliates in May (1.1%), up to a total of 17,405,279 employed, while the Self-Employed Regime (RETA) added 9,522 affiliates to its ranks ( 0.3%), which placed the total number of self-employed contributors at 3,344,716.

Within the General Regime, the increase in affiliation was widespread. For yet another month, the hotel and catering industry led the greatest rise in employment, gaining 67,315 contributors compared to the previous month (4.6%).

This was followed, by far, by administrative activities, with 20,930 more employees (1.5%); commerce, which added 16,009 new jobs (0.6%) and the manufacturing industry, where affiliation grew by 11,136 contributors (0.58%).

For its part, the Special Agrarian System gained 16,539 jobs in the fifth month of the year (2.3%) and the Home registered 644 registrations (0.17%).

The Ministry underlines that the growth of affiliation compared to the level prior to the pandemic is "especially dynamic" in sectors with high added value, such as information technology and telecommunications, which have 22.3% more affiliates than before Covid, or professional, scientific and technical activities, where employment has increased by 13%.

In fact, according to Social Security, one in four affiliates, that is, almost 270,000 people, have joined these "highly productive" sectors since the end of the pandemic.

Likewise, the Ministry highlights that, since 2019, youth employment has grown by 10.1%, exceeding the average for the economy as a whole by 3.1 points, while female employment has increased by 8.6%, three points more than the masculine, until assuming 47.6% of the total membership for the first time.

According to the Ministry, the data for May clearly reflect the positive effects of the labor reform on the stability of employment and the improvement in its quality since it came into force 17 months ago.

Thus, the percentage of affiliates with a temporary contract remained at a record low of 14% in May, compared to the average of 30% before the labor reform. In the case of those under 30 years of age, temporary employment has been reduced by 32 points, from 53% to 21%.

At the same time, Social Security now accounts for more than three million more members with an indefinite contract than in December 2021, the last month before the entry into force of the labor reform.

The greater stability of employment is also verified, according to the Ministry, in the fact that the average duration of contracts that have caused leave in the first five months of this year has increased by 67 days compared to the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.

Of the 4.1 million affiliates who had a temporary contract in the first quarter of 2022 and are still registered, 54% (2.3 million) were permanent in May 2023. In the case of young people, this percentage reaches 66.3%.

The average affiliation increased in May in all the autonomous communities. The greatest increases, in absolute terms, were registered in the Balearic Islands (49,265 employed), Catalonia (40,503), Madrid (16,463) and Castilla-La Mancha (14,189 contributors).

In relative values, the greatest advances were made by the Balearic Islands (8.9%), Aragón and La Rioja (2.1% in both cases), Castilla-La Mancha (1.87%) and Murcia (1.69%) .

On the other hand, the Ministry has reported that workers in ERTE for economic, technical, organizational or production reasons (ETOP) stood at 10,043 at the end of May, below the 13,668 of the previous month and the approximate equivalent to 0, 1% of total affiliates.

In total, as of May 31, there were 11,265 workers in ERTE, of which 10,043 were in an ERTE-ETOP and 1,222 in an ERTE due to force majeure.