Spain has reached a record 21 million members of Social Security after creating 199,538 jobs in April, despite a slower pace compared to the previous year. This is due to the fact that Easter fell in April in 2023. However, this is still higher than the average for previous years before the pandemic.
The Ministry reported that there was a surge in seasonal employment that led to an increase of 486,516 affiliates or 2.36%, which is the slowest pace since 2014 excluding the pandemic year. The hospitality sector saw the most job creations with 91,913 new positions, followed by administrative activities and auxiliary services as well as commerce. Additionally, self-employment grew in April with 11,987 new self-employed workers, mostly in the hospitality sector.
Despite most jobs being in the services sector, there were also job increases in agriculture, livestock, fishing, industry and construction. The surge in employment was largely attributed to seasonal jobs linked to tourism as shown by the distribution of new positions among Balearics, Andalusia and Catalonia. Despite this growth however, there are still many unemployed people registered at Sepe offices who decreased by 60,503 people in April bringing the total to 2,666,500 people. Unemployment reductions were seen across all sectors but when analyzing data without seasonal fluctuations it highlights a positive trend in labor market
