Alejandra Olcese

Updated Saturday, March 9, 2024-02:20

  • Laboral Spain reaches its record of resignations but only one in four ends up better paid

Spaniards

have resorted to finding

a second job

or

increasing their working hours

to increase their earnings and thus weather the blow of

inflation

, unlike Europeans, who instead of focusing on improving their income have generally opted

to

look for cheaper purchasing alternatives.

According to the report

The reaction of households to the rise in prices in Spain and in the Economic and Monetary Union

published this Friday by the

Bank of Spain

, the percentage of Spaniards who have increased their

labor supply

- increasing daily working hours or looking for a second job - to adapt to the evolution of prices has been 1.2 points higher than in the Eurozone;

In fact, "the proportion of people in a situation of

multiple employment

in Spain

increased by 6.8%

between September 2022 and September 2023, compared to the

1% increase

observed in the case of the EMU," they highlight.

In that period,

inflation in Spain

was 3.5%, which is added to the 8.9% price increase that was recorded from September 2021 to the same month of 2022 and the 4% increase suffered in the twelve preceding months.

Inflation accumulates, which impoverishes households, which is why many have chosen to try to increase their sources of income.

The

increase in salaries

, especially in the last year, has also contributed to alleviating inflation, but, according to the institution governed by Pablo Hernández de Cos, no more than in the rest of the European countries.

What

profile

do Spaniards have who have sought the solution in moonlighting?

The Bank of Spain studies what characteristics have led certain households to resort to this route and concludes that "individuals belonging to households with a

reduced liquidity cushion

or who reside in their home on a

rental

basis " are among those who most They have chosen this route.

Households with a liquidity cushion are those that have sufficient resources to face unforeseen expenses for an amount equivalent to a monthly payment of their income (or have some way of obtaining this amount, for example, through loans from family or banks. );

while those without liquidity or with reduced liquidity have a volume of zero resources or less than this amount.

The latter have chosen, more frequently than the rest, to search for another job.

With respect to

housing , those who live in

rentals

have been more vulnerable and more likely to look for another job

, something that has been influenced by the unprecedented rise in rental prices that has occurred in recent years, despite the measures to limit its increase, which have not been able to prevent the supply of available apartments from being reduced and the price of new ones entering the market rising.

Mortgages

have also experienced a sharp increase due to the rise in interest rates, but owners are generally more solvent and have had to resort to other employment to a lesser extent

.

Younger workers with a lower educational level, who tend to have lower average incomes, and also women, who are abundant in the lowest paid professions, have also been more likely than the rest to look for another job.

Go into debt to consume

Spaniards have wanted to reduce their consumption as little as possible, perhaps due to the behavioral change imposed by the pandemic and the new importance of

carpe diem

;

In fact, it has not stopped growing since June 2020 - with the exception of the last quarter of 2022 - until recovering the pre-pandemic level at the end of 2023. To maintain and even increase it, in addition to choosing to work more, they have turned to

credit

: " The proportion of individuals who indicate that they have resorted to loans to cope with the evolution of prices is

2.3 percentage points higher in Spain

than in the EMU, in line with the more dynamic evolution of consumer credit that has recently been observed in our country".

This means that we have been less reluctant than in other European countries to go into debt to face rising prices.

Despite these differences with the EU, both in our country and in the rest, citizens have agreed to look for better purchasing alternatives (

offers and sales

), although they have done so to a greater extent in the rest of the countries, to reduce spending, delay the purchase of durable goods (vehicles, appliances, computers, mobile phones, jewelry or even clothing) or sacrifice a part of the savings.

Regarding their plans for the next twelve months, between August and October 2023 - when surveyed by the supervisor - the Spaniards planned

to continue increasing their job offer

in the coming months: "the percentage of individuals who expected adjustments in this aspect was 8 points higher than those who indicated that they had increased their work hours in the previous twelve months".

Furthermore, the proportion of households that, in order to adjust to the evolution of prices, planned to delay the purchase of durable goods increased by 3.6 points, and those that planned to reduce their level of spending, by 5.2, compared to what was observed in the previous twelve months.

In contrast, the percentage of households that expect to resort to loans to cope with the evolution of prices in the following twelve months was 1.8 points lower than those that indicated having requested them for this purpose in the previous twelve months.