The labor market showed in May that it could sustain the pace of job creation it has shown in recent months. Data released by Social Security and Labor this Friday showed that over 200,000 jobs created in May for the third month in a row, a milestone in the Spanish labor market, although a similar phenomenon occurs in other countries. With this streak, Spain exceeds 20.8 million workers registered with the social security system, a historical figure. There is good news for the registered unemployed as well, as there are now 2.7 million, the lowest number since May 2008.

However, the data still shows a strong dependence on the hospitality industry. The data for the last three months show that 40% of all jobs created are in this sector. In other words, of the 645,257 new jobs created by Spain since February, 258,742 are in the hospitality industry.

And this growth lags far behind other sectors. The next sector that has created the most jobs is administrative activities, but it is five times less than the jobs created in the hospitality industry, with only 43,500 people. At the same level are jobs created in trade with 43,200, followed by jobs created in public administration (28,700), transport (27,200) and construction (26,700).

As a percentage, Hospitality affiliates increased by 20% in these three months, while the next sector in which they grew the most was agriculture, with a 7% gain. They are followed by artistic activities (+4%), transport, administrative activities and construction (+3% all three). On the other hand, in the most productive sectors, employment growth in recent months has been minimal: 1% in the manufacturing industry, as well as in the extractive industries, and 2% in scientific and technical professional activities.

The trend is that Spain emerges from crisis with lower job productivity than I had before the pandemic. This may be why employment growth is higher than growth in economic activity (GDP). Traditionally, the hospitality industry is an unproductive activity, and technology or digital activities generate “better” jobs that produce more and are more important to the economy in the future. That is why economists insist on the importance of using European funds to help change the Spanish production model, which should move towards less dependence on tourism and the hospitality industry.

However, it must be remembered that this is not just a recent trend, but already The OECD warned in 2019 about what Spain was a developed country that destroyed the most productive jobs. in the last decade. And that, at the same time, it has created almost the same jobs in low-productivity sectors such as hospitality, consulting, and personal services such as laundry, hairdressing, beauty salons, funeral homes, and gyms. On the other hand, it has destroyed construction, the financial sector and domestic employment.

The biggest increase since the beginning of the pandemic in the IT sector

The Ministry of Social Security emphasizes that the quality of employment has improved since the start of the pandemic, if all data are seasonally adjusted. Between February 2020 and May of this month, the number of jobs in the field of information technology and telecommunications increased by 129,000 people, and in scientific and technical activities by 140,000 people, i.e. in the two sectors that grew the most during this period (+22% and +12% respectively). , while the national average is 6%. “One in four branches, 270,000 in total, join these two high-performance industries,” the ministry said.

This is what they interpret as “significant improvement” in the quality of employment, because sectors with high productivity lead the growth. And at the same time, the quality of contracts has improved, yes, in all industries, as the percentage of permanent employees has increased significantly in all of them. In agriculture, 87% of workers now have a permanent contract, up from 65% between 2017 and 2021; In industry, 93% of employees are now permanent, compared to 80% pre-pandemic, and in the service sector, they are already 85%, compared to 70%.