Coinciding with the end of Christmas hiring, January is always a bad month for employment and this year confirms the rule. The result is an increase of 70,744 unemployed compared to the previous month and the loss of 215,047 Social Security affiliates. The end of 2022 was reached with economic activity practically flat, although recession was avoided, and with employment showing symptoms of fatigue. Now, 2023 starts with a January that passes the bill for a month that never brings good news in labor matters.
The increase of 70,774 unemployed people this month quadruples the increase of 17,000 last January, that was a good result; and it is also higher than that of the same month in the pre-pandemic years. Specifically, from 2016 to 2018 the increase ranged between 57,000 and 63,000 unemployed, and only in January 2019 was the increase higher than this year, with 83,000 more unemployed.
Despite the bad data, the total number of unemployed remains below the psychological limit of three million. There are 2,908,397, the lowest figure in a month of January since 2008. Specifically, compared to January 2022, there are 215,000 fewer unemployed.
By economic sectors, unemployment increased especially in services and agriculture, while it hardly changed in industry, and instead fell in construction. When examining it by autonomous communities, unemployment rises in all but the Balearic Islands. The worst stop is Andalusia, with an increase of 21,000 unemployed compared to December, followed at a distance by Madrid, with 11,000 and a little further away the Valencian Community and Catalonia.
The data provided today by the Ministry of Labor show that the tendency to stabilize hiring continues. Thus, of the 1,200,000 contracts registered this month, 44% were permanent and 56% temporary. This figure of 670,000 temporary contracts is one million fewer than in January 2022.
With regard to Social Security, in January 215,047 affiliates were lost due to the end of the Christmas campaign. In this field, the data from last year, and even from the entire pre-pandemic stage, also worsens. It is a job destruction 15% higher than the average between 2017 and 2019. In the recent stage, only the years in which the effects of the pandemic had a full impact, such as 2020 and 2021, the destruction of jobs work was greater.
The total number of affiliates stands at 20,081,224, the highest figure for a month of January in the historical series, and which is almost half a million more than a year ago.
If the seasonally adjusted data are examined, those that discount the calendar effect and that are preferred by the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security, affiliates are 57,726 more than the previous month and six consecutive months are chained, increasing the number of employed.
In the affiliation data, the reduction in temporary employment also stands out, with a January in which the percentage of affiliates with a temporary contract fell to 15%, when before the labor reform the average was 30%. In the case of those under 30 years of age, temporary employment has fallen 30 points, going from 53% to 23%. There are 2.3 million more members with an indefinite contract now than in December 2021, before the entry into force of the labor reform.
