One in four new jobs created in the Spanish economy is linked to tourism

Tourism employment in the second quarter of 2023 reached 2,864,776 employees, which represents an increase of 5.4% compared to the same period in 2022 and 6.3% more than in 2019, according to data published by Turespaña .

Between April and June 2023, tourism-related activities registered 146,678 more employees than in the same quarter of the previous year, which represents one in four jobs created during that period in the Spanish economy as a whole (589,000). In other words, 24.9% of new jobs have been the result of tourism-related activities.

For their part, active workers in tourism in the second quarter of the year exceeded three million (3,130,026), 6% more than in the same period of the previous year.

In relation to the unemployment rate, it stood at 8.5% in the second quarter, half a point above 2022 due to the increase in active workers, but three points less than in 2019 (11.1%) and that the national economy, which registers 11.6%.

“The good data from the Active Population Survey show that the tourism sector is one of the main economic engines of our country. Spain continues to create employment linked to tourism activities and it does so in an increasingly robust way and always under the currency of quality, stability and excellence”, assessed the acting Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Héctor Gómez.

For his part, Gómez wanted to highlight that “the labour market around tourism has shown formidable resilience and performance despite the uncertainty generated by inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These data show that Spain is not only a power in attracting tourists, but it is a power when it comes to generating wealth and stability for the citizens who are dedicated to this sector”, he added.

Increase in all activities and wage earners

In this quarter, the main tourist activities have experienced growth. The hospitality industry increased by 7.1%, due to the positive evolution of both food and beverage services (7.1%) and accommodation services (7.2%). In travel agencies the interannual variation was 0.4%, while in passenger transport it was 10.8%.

The main growth in the quarter occurred among wage earners (8.1%), registering 2,381,684. Wage earners showed increases in all tourism activities. In passenger transport (17.3%), in hospitality (8.7%) and in “other tourist activities” (3.5%). Within “other tourist activities”, wage earners in travel agencies experienced a rise of 6.2%.

Wage earners in the tourism sector with a permanent contract (80.4%) have increased by 18.1% this year, representing the eighth consecutive rise. For their part, wage-earners with a temporary contract registered a decrease of 19.9%. In this sense, the temporary employment rate in the tourism sector was 19.6%, seven points lower than that of the same period in 2022: 26.4%.

For their part, the self-employed have decreased by 6% compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 482,388. There have been decreases in “other tourist activities” (-22%) and in passenger transport (-8.6%), while in the hotel industry they have increased by half a percentage point (0.5%).

Occupation by autonomous communities

The autonomous communities that have registered the highest number of employed persons from April to June are Catalonia (487,314), Madrid (440,033), the Valencian Community (279,779) and the Canary Islands (271,204).

During this period, the number of employed persons grew in all the autonomous communities, except in the Valencian Community, Castilla y León, Aragón and Cantabria.

Héctor Gómez highlights “that the growth of employment is homogeneous in all the communities, which shows that the Government’s policies, the recovery plans linked to tourism and the constant dialogue with the social agents and with the rest of the administrations, are paying off: Spain is correcting the historical asymmetries related to tourism employment, which is capable of generating wealth throughout the national territory, which strengthens us as a key economic sector for the performance of GDP and as a country as a whole”.

The autonomous communities where the number of employed grew the most was La Rioja, with a year-on-year growth of 40.1%, Galicia, with 18.3%, and the Balearic Islands, with 18.1%.

The autonomous communities with the highest number of tourist flows (Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Madrid) are those that together in the second quarter accounted for 74.5% of the total employed in the sector.

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