The last month of the year 2021 has ended with a fall in the total of people unemployed in the offices of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) of 76,782 in relation to the previous month. In relative values, the decrease in unemployment was -2.41%. In this way, December marks a new record by accumulating ten consecutive months of decreases, the longest period in the historical series in which the total decrease in the unemployed is 902,884 people.
The total registered unemployment stands at 3,105,905 people. It is the lowest figure for a month of December since 2007 and represents 140,142 fewer unemployed than at the beginning of the pandemic, in February 2020.
Compared to December 2020, unemployment has decreased by 782,232 people (-20.12%).
In seasonally adjusted terms, registered unemployment fell by 40,832 people.
Unemployment by economic sectors
By economic sectors, registered unemployment decreased in Services 64,809 people (-2.88%), in Agriculture 4,530 people (-3.02%) and among the group Without Previous Employment, which registered 16,702 fewer people (- 6.13 %).
Construction increased by 7,505 people (3.00%) and Industry 1,754 people (0.68%).
However, all sectors present a lower level of unemployment than in the same month of the previous year.
Unemployment for sex
Unemployment falls, above all, among women with 64,225 (-3.40%) fewer unemployed in relation to the month of November. The total stands at 1,824,032.
Since February, the number of unemployed women has fallen by 480,747. There are, therefore, 72,040 fewer registered unemployed than at the start of the pandemic.
Male unemployment fell by 12,557 (-0.97%) to a total of 1,281,873 men registered in the public employment services.
Youth unemployment
Unemployment of young people under 25 years of age fell in December by 22,848 people (-9.31%) compared to the previous month.
In the last ten months accumulates a decrease of 143,809 people. Thus, unemployment in this group stands at 222,594 young people, closing the year with the lowest figure in a month of December in the entire historical series.
Unemployment by autonomous communities
Registered unemployment in the last month of 2021 drops in 16 Autonomous Communities. The most important falls were registered in the Community of Madrid (-24,380), the Valencian Community (-18,242) and Andalusia (-14,607).
In year-on-year terms, unemployment fell significantly in all the autonomous communities.
Hiring
The total number of contracts registered during the month of December was 1,681,550. It represents an increase of 326,403 (24.09%) over the same month in 2020.
Accumulated hiring in 2021 has reached the figure of 19,384,359 with 3,441,298 more contracts (21.58%) than in the previous year.
In December 2021, 173,784 permanent employment contracts were registered, 10.33% of all contracts.
In accumulated magnitudes, 2,113,341 contracts have been made in the twelve months of 2021. They represent an increase of 567,731 (36.73%) over the same period of 2020.
The permanent contracts for the month of December are divided, regarding the duration of their working hours, in 109,933 full-time and 63,851 part-time.
The rest of the contracts, until completing the total of 1,681,550 for the month of December 2021, are 8,823 of a training nature and 1,498,943 other types of temporary contracts. Within this last group, the Eventuals due to Production Circumstances (full-time working hours) stand out with 29.10%, followed by Specific Work or Service (full-time working hours) with 25.87% of the total all contracts. Temporary contracts with part-time hours account for 29.59% of the total.
Benefits in the month of November
At the end of the month, the total number of beneficiaries was 1,821,130.
Total expenses for November 2021 amounted to 1,849.9 million euros, which is 23.9% less than the same month of the previous year.
The monthly amount in ERTE benefits in November was 117 million euros, a new minimum since the pandemic began.
The average monthly expenditure per beneficiary, not including the agricultural subsidy for Andalusia and Extremadura, in the month of November 2021 was 1,043.2 euros.
