The Valencian Community closed 2022 with 102,700 more employed than a year earlier, the largest increase in absolute terms of all the autonomous communities, while in relative terms it registered the third largest increase, 4.86%, above the average for Spain , which was 1.38%.
According to the Active Population Survey (EPA), published this Thursday by the National Statistics Institute (INE) and corresponding to the fourth quarter of 2022, the number of unemployed people in the Valencian Community stands at 347,200 and the unemployment rate at 13.53%, above the average for Spain (12.87%).
In the fourth quarter of 2022, employment rose by 27,300 people in the Valencian Community, which was the second autonomous region where it increased the most in absolute terms, only surpassed by the Canary Islands (43,100 more), and ahead of the Community of Madrid (26,400 ). The largest decreases in employment in the last quarter of 2022 occurred in the Balearic Islands (–83,300), Catalonia (–40,900) and Andalusia (–19,400).
In relative terms, the Communities with the greatest quarterly increase in employment are Canarias (4.55%), Murcia (2.57%) and Comunitat Valenciana (1.25%). In this regard, the regional secretary for Employment, Enric Nomdedéu, stressed in a statement that the INE data reflect that the Community “has more people working or looking for work (active) than ever before in the entire historical series.” “In fact, for 15 years, since the second quarter of 2008, there have not been so many people working in the Valencian Community, 2,218,600 employed.”
As for unemployed people in 2022, the decrease was 8,600, which represents a decrease of 2.42%, in line with that registered for the State as a whole, which is 2.57%.
Regarding the quarterly data, Nomdedéu has emphasized that the Valencian Community created 27,300 new jobs during the last quarter of 2022, while in the country as a whole employment decreased by 0.40%. Likewise, it has highlighted that people with a permanent contract in the Valencian Community increased by 7.1% last year and represent 81.7% of hiring.
On the other hand, both employers and unions have valued the figures known yesterday. The Business Confederation of the Valencian Community (CEV) has warned that, despite the data, there is a “complex situation” that some productive branches are going through. For example, they point out that in the province of Castellón employment has advanced “only” in the agricultural sector, but that this progress has been “insufficient to compensate for the significant decline in employment in the industrial, service and, further afield, sectors , building”.
In its analysis, the CEV points out that “the private sector of the Community maintains its dynamism”, but they stress that in the current context of slowdown there is an “urgent need to support the branches and companies most burdened over time by high costs energy and other inputs, in a similar way to those received by its competitors and materialize as soon as possible”.
From the union side, CCOO-PV highlights that “despite the uncertain situation, jobs are being created in the Valencian Country, and, precisely for this reason, the demand for employment is increasing.”
Its general secretary, Ana GarcÃa, has highlighted the positive effects of the application of the labor reform and has defended that “we can conclude that employment policies do have a favorable effect on the labor market and on workers”. Garcia points out.
