03/01/2025

Labour market balance

Social Security exceeds a year more than 500,000 new members in 2024 and consolidates above 21.3 million

Topics:

  • Seguridad Social y Pensiones
  • In December, 21,344,487 affiliates are registered in seasonally adjusted terms, with record highs. It’s 56 months of consecutive climbs
  • The original series also exceeds 21.3 million, with 501,952 more than a year ago (+2.41% in average affiliates)
  • The good employment performance of the General System stands out, with an increase of 2.9% year-on-year, and among the self-employed, which is growing again, and is at historically high levels, thanks to the promotion of activities of high added value
  • The Spanish labor market reflects a greater dynamism than the large European economies since before the labor reform and grows by 8.1% compared to 5.5% in Italy or 1.7% in Germany
  • A good tone of employment among young people, foreigners and women, with rates of increase above the average. Women’s employment reaches its all-time high in December, with more than 10.1 million women employed

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Social Security registered 21,344,487 members in December, discounting seasonality and the calendar effect. It represents an increase of 501,551 employed so far this year. There are already 56 months of uninterrupted employment growth in this series, after adding this month 42,700 affiliates; which leads the series to record a new record high.

In this way, Social Security will once again exceed 500,000 new members in 2024, as was already the case in 2023.


 

The average affiliation (original series) also exceeds 21.3 million affiliates (21,337,962), which means that it is the December with the highest level of employment in the historical series, with 501,952 affiliates more than a year ago (+2.41%). That’s 35,500 more than in November. These figures mean that, in the last four years, almost 2.3 million members of Social Security have joined.

In inter-monthly comparison by sector, Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (+1.2%) and Commerce (+1.1%) stand out in the General Regime. It is reduced in Hospitality (-1.9%) and Construction (-1.07%).

In year-on-year terms, the majority of the sectors of the General System (+2.9%), earning affiliates with special intensity experience this increase: Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (+6.2%), Transport and Storage (+5.5%) and Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (+4.6%).

The number of self-employed workers, meanwhile, is approaching 3.4 million (RETA and SETA), with 3,386,765 workers on their own account, after adding 42,396 workers in the last year, thanks to the pull of the high added value sectors. It is the highest level in a month of December. In year-on-year comparison, 47,608 more workers have been registered in the RETA alone, not counting the agricultural self-employed, and they exceed 3.22 million, the maximum in the series since 2008. In the last year, Information and Communications and Professional Scientific and Technical Activities have incorporated 21,553 self-employed.

 

For its part, in the last decade, the employment of foreigners has grown faster than that of nationals. In December, affiliates from other countries accounted for 13.5% of the total; there are nearly 2.88 million workers in the original series.

On the other hand, if we focus on the areas most affected by DANA, the affiliation data show no impact on employment. The affiliation in the province of Valencia has grown compared to November in 6,427 affiliates and compared to a year ago in 28,393, up to a total of 1,176,453 affiliates.

Higher growth in employment than the other large European economies

Job creation in Spain (+8.1%) surpasses that of the large European countries (Italy, +5.5%; France, +2.3%; Germany, +1.7%) since the end of 2021, before the entry into force of the labour reform.
 

 

More than 10.1 million affiliated women

In December, the average membership exceeded 10.1 million and reached the highest level in the series, with 10,109,202 employees representing 47.4% of the total number of workers, a percentage in historical terms.
 

 

The growth of female employment is 10.8% since the year before the labor reform, which translates into an increase of 2.9 percentage points above that of men, which is 7.9%. In year-on-year terms, women’s membership is also growing: 2.8%; compared to 2.1% of men.

The employment of young people also shows a dynamism above the average, with an increase of 20.5% since 2021, which is up 11.2 points more than the growth of joint employment (9.3%), that is, it grows more than double the average.

Occupations of high added value

The annual membership balance confirms that growth is mainly concentrated in sectors with high added value, such as Information and Communications and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities. These activities also show significant growth so far in 2024 (with 75,000 more people employed) and increases in the environment of 4%, compared to 2.7% of the national average.


 

Nearly 3.7 million more workers with an indefinite contract since the approval of the labor reform

Not only is there more employment, but its quality has also increased. Currently, there are about 14.7 million people employed on an indefinite contract, of whom more than 9.7 million work full-time. They account for almost 3.7 million members (3,667,547) with an indefinite contract more since the approval of the labor reform.

The dynamism of the labour market and the increase in the quality of employment is helping to strengthen the sustainability of the pension system and the contributory ratio per pensioner stands at 2.44, levels that guarantee the sustainability of the pension system.

Additional information in Excel and on the web:
https://w6.seg-social.es/PXWeb/pxweb/es
 

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