For the first time in history, Spain reaches 21 million Social Security affiliates

Social Security has registered 21,032,661 affiliated workers in March, discounting seasonality and the calendar effect. It is the best figure in the historical series, after having added 530,843 in the last year, in line with the average job creation in the years before the pandemic, from 2015 to 2019.

For its part, the average membership figure (the original series) is at record levels, with 20,901,967 members. There are 193,585 more employees than in February, an increase much higher than the average for the years 2017 to 2019, which was 150,000 employees. The year-on-year growth in average affiliation has been 2.6%, with 525,414 more workers than a year ago.

“In March, affiliation marks historical records and the structural change brought about by the labour reform is accentuated, with a boost in jobs in the highest quality sectors,” said the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz. “The number of women members is the highest in the series, with almost 10 million women working, 47.35% of the total,” she added.

In the last month, the sector that has grown the most in the General Regime is Hospitality, with 81,151 more affiliates, 6.1%. It is followed by Commerce, with 13,643, and Education, with 11,744 more. All sectors of the General Regime grow or remain stable.

Daily affiliation has remained above 20.9 million workers since March 14 and exceeded 21 million for the first time on the 25th.

Greater job growth than other major economies

Compared to the pre-pandemic level (December 2019), membership has grown by more than 1.6 million people in seasonally adjusted terms. Furthermore, job creation in Spain (+8.3%) exceeds that of large European countries (France, +5%; Italy +2.9%; Germany, +1.5%) compared to that level prior to the pandemic.

The increase in employment is more notable than in these countries also since the start of the war in Ukraine, in Spain it has grown by 6.3%, while in France and Germany growth close to 2% has been recorded in this period.

9.9 million women working

The good progress in employment is more pronounced among women. In March, 9,896,150 members were registered, 297,948 more than in the same month of 2023, which means that more than half of the employment created in the last year corresponds to women (56.7%).

The growth in female employment is 11.8% since the year before the pandemic and exceeds the increase among men by 4.1 points, which is 7.7%. In this way, the gap in the labour market is closing. Currently, women make up 47.35% of all workers, which is the highest level in the series.

In the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers, membership among women has increased by 6.2%, compared to the 1.2% growth in male employment, and they now account for 36.8% of the total.

High added value

The increase in membership compared to the pre-pandemic level is especially intense in sectors with high added value, such as Information and Communication and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities. These sectors show growth of more than 16% compared to the pre-pandemic situation. In fact, more than 1 in 5 affiliates join these two sectors since then.

These are activities with greater stability and quality of employment. The weight of full-time indefinite contracts exceeds 85% in the case of Information and Communication and 75% in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities. As a counterpart, the levels of temporary employment fall even more than in the rest of the sections, up to 5% in the case of Information and Communication and 7.5% in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities. Likewise, they have higher salaries and, therefore, higher contribution bases. Specifically, in the Information and Communication sector these bases are 36% higher than in all sectors, and 15% in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities.

More than 3.3 million new permanent members and minimum temporary employment

Two years after the entry into force of the labour reform, its positive effects on the stabilisation of employment and the improvement of its quality are accentuated. Altogether, there are now more than 3.3 million members (3,329,793) with a permanent contract more than in December 2021, the last month before the reform came into force.

Furthermore, in March, the percentage of members with an indefinite contract stood at 87.3%, its historical maximum, growing 17.3 points since the labour reform. Thus, the temporary employment rate remains at historic lows (12.7%). In the case of those under 30 years of age, the reduction in the level of temporary employment is more intense, falling by 33.6 percentage points (from 53% to 19.4%) compared to the level it had before the reform.

The effects of the labour reform are also perceived in the evolution of members with full-time indefinite contracts in the last year, who grew more intensely (4.7% year-on-year, which is 429,645 more) than those with part-time contracts (4.4%, which are 103,490) and that the discontinuous fixed ones (2.1%, which are 18,174).

Finally, the number of workers in ERTE remains at minimum levels, around 11,600, less than 0.1% of the total affiliates.

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