The drop in unemployment in 2022 is good news for Spain, but it is decaffeinated by the
creative accounting
that the labor reform has introduced when establishing the total count of unemployed.
The result -which
does not include discontinuous permanent workers in a situation of inactivity-
ends up being an unclear photograph when it comes to recording the real evolution of the labor market.
The Government of Pedro Sánchez announced yesterday an increase of almost half a million jobs at the end of 2
022, a figure that pushes the number of affiliates to Social Security above the barrier of 20 million and that
It affects all the autonomous communities, with special force in the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and Madrid.
And the ministries of Yolanda Díaz and José Luis Escrivá boasted both the drop in unemployment by 8.64% and the increase in permanent contracts, which grew to 5.78 million (4.5 more than the previous year).
What he did not specify is that
almost half of them, 44%, are discontinuous fixed
, a modality that has experienced a real explosion and that allows the worker to be activated depending on the seasonal needs to later unsubscribe and send him to unemployment (in many cases, to collect the unemployment benefit).
We are talking about seasonal jobs such as those that can be found in tourism or hospitality, which by the way is the sector that boosted employment the most in the year that we have just dismissed.
These contracts now provide more stability than before to this type of seasonal workers, which improves their confidence and their economic expectations, benefiting consumption, as recognized by the Bank of Spain itself.
The importance of discontinuous permanent employees has also been increasing, according to the figures of the State Public Employment Service.
For this reason, excluding them from the Spanish labor radiography when they are in a situation of inactivity lowers the degree of reliability of the monthly unemployment data.
Organizations such as BBVA Research, the Institute of Economic Studies (IEE) or the Círculo de Empresarios have conveyed their doubts about
how this measurement falsifies the statistics and how it can even alter the relationship between the employment indicators and those of economic growth
, like GDP.
Currently there is no official statistical source where the exact number of inactive discontinuous landlines can be consulted, which is estimated at two million, without knowing how many are actually working and how many are waiting to be called.
And the Secretary of State for Employment reiterated yesterday that he does not have "refined" data.
However, and for the figures to be credible,
The Government must make an effort to guarantee statistics
that not only serve to reinforce a political story, but to take appropriate measures based on real data.
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