Escrivá announces an increase of 30,000 Social Security affiliates in July

MADRID, 20 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, announced this Wednesday an increase in Social Security affiliation estimated at 30,000 net workers, in seasonally adjusted terms, for the month of July.

"Despite the complicated context, it is going to be a good month from the point of view of job creation," said Escrivá at the press conference to present the membership data.

With the rebound in July, Social Security registers some 300,000 more affiliates in the first seven months of the year and an increase of 650,000 workers since the beginning of the pandemic.

Escrivá has pointed out that employment is being "very extensive and generalized", especially in the scientific and technical sectors, and has highlighted that the hospitality industry, which was "further behind", is recovering pre-pandemic levels of affiliation.

The hotel industry already has 1,703,476 affiliates, according to the advance of the July data presented by the minister, and returns to levels similar to those of February 2020, after the destruction of some 300,000 jobs in this sector during the pandemic .

Escrivá blames the labor reform, approved at the end of 2021, for the "improvement in the quality of employment", with a "growing increase" in the stability and duration of contracts.

"In the first seven months, the average growth in employment has been similar to the 2017-2019 period, which were very good years from the point of view of employment," said the minister, who also highlighted that the levels of affiliation continue to above the threshold of 20 million contributors.

By autonomous communities, most show positive growth, although "with significant differences". The head of Social Security has referred, specifically, to Madrid, which is having "virtually 0% growth in employment and pulls a little down."

Regarding the quality of employment, 1,125,000 more permanent contracts have been signed than in years prior to the pandemic, while in the case of permanent-discontinuous contracts the growth is 440,000, according to data shared by Social Security.

In addition, the average duration of contracts signed and terminated has gone from 18.7 days in 2019 to 23 days in 2022, 23% more.

"The labor reform provides greater stability and duration in all contracts in a particularly remarkable way", Escrivá has specified.

During his presentation, the minister also commented that there is a stabilization of the Temporary Employment Regulation Files (ERTE) and they are at "very low levels month after month".

Regarding the collection of Social Security, Escrivá recalled that there has been a growth of 8.5% in the first half of the year, the result of "this greater creation of employment and dynamism of the labor market".