The year starts with 70,744 more unemployed and the destruction of 215,047 jobs

This is clear from the data published today by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, which show that the total number of registered unemployed stood at 2,908,397 (the lowest figure for a month of January since 2008).

In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment fell by 12,462 people in January compared to December 2022

In year-on-year comparison, registered unemployment fell by 214,681 people (-6.87%).

By gender, male unemployment stood at 1,168,312 men at the end of the first month of the year, after rising by 20,807 (1.81%) and female unemployment by 1,740,085 women, increasing by 49,937 (2.95%). Thus, unemployment rose more than double among women than among men.

On the other hand, in the year-on-year comparison, male unemployment fell by 113,303 men (-8.84%) and female unemployment fell by 101,378 women (-5.51%).

By age, unemployment among young people under 25 increased in January by 7,753 people (3.96%) compared to the previous month and among those over that age by 62,991 (2.38%).

Unemployment only fell in the Balearic Islands, with 297 fewer unemployed in the first month of the year, while it rose in the rest of the communities, led by Andalucía (21,048), Comunidad de Madrid (11,140) and Comunidad Valenciana (6,776).

Regarding the different sectors, unemployment only fell in construction, with 3,111 fewer unemployed (-1.37%). On the contrary, it increased in services, with 70,759 more unemployed (3.51%); agriculture, 1,457 (1.29%) and industry 408 (0.17%). The group Without Previous Employment increased by 1,231 unemployed (0.50%).

In addition, the Spanish labor market has destroyed employment after the end of the Christmas campaign. Social Security lost 215,047 affiliates in January, placing the total number of contributors at 20,081,224. Despite the setback suffered at the start of the year, the total number of affiliates is the highest in the historical series for a month of January.

The decrease in affiliates in January of this year is greater than that experienced in 2022 (-197,750 employed) but less than that of 2021 (-218,953) and 2020 (-244,044). In percentage terms, the Ministry has highlighted that the fall in January of this year (-1.06%) has been lower than the decreases registered in the same month of 2021 (-1.15%), 2020 (-1.26% ) and 2019 (-1.08%).

Compared to a year ago, Social Security has gained 454,063 affiliates.

The Ministry directed by José Luis Escrivá has highlighted that in seasonally adjusted terms the affiliation has added 57,726 troops, approaching 20.3 million contributors (20,298,620).

The monthly decrease in average affiliates in January was noted in both sexes, although more among women, who lost 116,322 contributors in the month compared to December (-1.2%), compared to a decline in male employment of 98,725 contributors (- 0.9%).

In this way, the number of working women lost in January the historical maximum of 9.55 million employed that it reached at the end of 2022 to stand at 9,442,857 affiliates, while the number of employed men ended the first month of the year in 10,638,367 contributors.

The average affiliation of foreigners, for its part, fell by 25,160 contributors in January, 1% compared to the previous month, to stand at 2,435,559 employed.

By schemes, the General, the most numerous in the system, lost 192,515 average affiliates in January (-1.1%), up to a total of 16,713,844 employed, while the Self-Employed Regime (RETA) subtracted 20,800 affiliates (-0 .6%), which placed the total number of self-employed contributors at 3,307,603.

Within the General Scheme, the hotel and catering industry led the largest drop in occupancy after the end of the Christmas season, losing 43,118 contributors compared to December (-3.3%). Administrative activities followed, with 42,068 fewer employees (-3%), and commerce, where affiliation contracted by 39,613 contributors (-1.5%).

For its part, agriculture lost 3,672 jobs in the first month of the year (-0.5%) and the Home regime registered 544 casualties (-0.1%).

The Ministry underlines that the growth of affiliation maintains a "remarkable dynamism" in sectors with high added value, such as information technology and communications, which have 19.9% ​​more affiliates than before the pandemic, or professional, scientific and techniques, where occupancy has increased by 11.5%.

The average affiliation fell in January in all the autonomous communities. The greatest decreases, in absolute terms, were recorded in Catalonia (-37,637 employed), Comunidad Valenciana (-31,549), Andalucía (-30,014 contributors) and Madrid (-27,331).

In relative values, the greatest setbacks were recorded by Extremadura (-1.58%), Comunidad Valenciana (-1.52%), Cantabria (-1.4%) and the Balearic Islands (-1.3%).

Despite the bad data for January, Social Security wanted to emphasize that compared to before the pandemic, all regions had higher employment levels in January, especially communities in the south of the country and the archipelagos, with employment growth greater than 5%.