The number of unemployed registered in the offices of the public employment services in the Canary Islands has fallen by 5,775 in March, which represents a decrease of 3.05 percent compared to the previous month. This decresase in unemployment numbers are primarily due to Easter seasonal hiring. According to data published on Tuesday by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, the archipelago’s unemployment register currently includes 183,391 people.
With these data, the Canary Islands is the second community where unemployment fell the most in March, only preceded by Andalusia (-15,284). Likewise, in terms of the year-on-year figure, the Canary Islands experienced a drop of 18,362 unemployed, which translates into a 9.10 percent decrease in percentage terms.
By provinces, the province of Las Palmas is the one with the highest number of unemployed, with 94,633, although it is the one with the greatest decrease, falling by 3,323 unemployed (-3.39%), while in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife unemployment reached 88,758 people and registered a decrease of 2,452 unemployed (-2.69%).
In terms of gender, women continue to be the majority on the unemployment lists, with 104,858, while men reached 78,533. The number of unemployed people under 25 years of age is 11,168.
UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS IN ALL SECTORS
March has been a month in which unemployment has fallen in all sectors, although the largest decrease has occurred in services, where it fell by 3,574. Although, it is still the sector with the highest number of unemployed, 140,787.
The group of people without previous employment registered a fall of 1,549 unemployed, bringing the number of unemployed to 15,149. All the other sectors also experienced decreases but less pronounced.
Thus, unemployment in construction fell by 294 people (16,620 unemployed), followed by agriculture and andustry, where it fell by 183 (3,920) and 175 unemployed, respectively.
LESS CONTRACTS THAN LAST YEAR
On the other hand, the Canary Islands reached a total of 59,745 contracts in the month of March, which implied 13,042 more than the previous month (+27.93%), while in the interannual data there was a decrease of 15,052 with respect to March 2022 (-20.12%).
Of the total number of contracts, there were 28,571 indefinite labour contracts in the archipelago in March, which implied a monthly increase of 6,114 (+27.23%), while the number of temporary contracts reached 31,174, which was 6,928 more than in February (+28.57%).
UNEMPLOYMENT FALLS IN SPAIN BY 48,755 PERSONS
On the other hand, in Spain as a whole, unemployment fell by 48,755 people in March in relation to the previous month (-1.67%), driven by this fall in unemployment in the services sector, also due to hiring for Easter. At the end of March, the total number of unemployed stood at 2,862,260, its lowest figure for this month since 2008, according to the Labour Ministry.
Unemployment fell in March in four economic sectors, especially in the services sector, which reduced the number of unemployed by 42,789 (-2%) due to hiring in the hotel and catering sector in preparation for Easter. This was followed by construction, where unemployment fell by 3,898 people (-1.7%); industry, with 3,419 fewer unemployed (-1.47%) and agriculture, with 2,648 fewer unemployed (-2.3%). However, unemployment rose in the group without previous employment, which after adding 10,139 unemployed in February, added another 3,999 unemployed to its ranks in March (+1.5%).
The descrease in unemployment affected both genders, although somewhat more among women. Specifically, female unemployment fell by 25,897 women (-1.5%), compared with a decline in male unemployment of 22,858 men (-1.9%). Thus, at the end of March, the total number of unemployed women stood at 1,718,323, its lowest figure in the last 15 years, while the number of unemployed men totalled 1,143,937.
By age, unemployment among young people under 25 fell by 0.1% in March, with 267 fewer unemployed than at the end of February, while unemployment among those aged 25 and over fell by 48,488 (-1.8%). Labour highlighted the fact that youth unemployment fell in March for the first time in this month in the last nine years, bringing the total number of unemployed under 25 years of age to 215,099, its lowest figure for a month of March in the historical series.
UNEMPLOYMENT ONLY RISES IN MADRID
Registered unemployment fell in March in all the Spain’s autonomous communities, except in Madrid, where it rose by 1,013 unemployed. The largest decreases were recorded in Andalusia (-15,284 unemployed), the Canary Islands (-5,775) and Castile and Leon (-4,446 unemployed).
As for the provinces, unemployment fell in 49 of them, especially in Seville (-4,053 unemployed), Malaga (-3,685) and Las Palmas (-3,323) and rose in three provinces: Madrid (+1,013 unemployed), Ceuta (+197) and Ourense (+32).
Unemployment among foreigners fell by 3,073 compared with the previous month (-0.8%), bringing the total number of unemployed immigrants to 372,915, which is 19,515 fewer unemployed than a year earlier (-5%).
INDEFINITE-DISCONTINUOUS CONTRACTS RISE BY 70%
In March, 1,315,095 contracts were registered, 21.3% less than in the same month of 2022. Of these, 615,674 were indefinite contracts, 19.8% more than in March 2022.
In total, 46.82% of the contracts signed in March were indefinite contracts, a higher percentage than that recorded in February, when the proportion of indefinite contracts was 45.46%.
Of the total number of indefinite contracts signed in March, 284,208 were full-time, 9% more than in the same month last year; 180,909 were indefinite-discontinuous contracts (+70.6%) and 150,557 were part-time indefinite contracts (+2.5%). Of all the contracts signed in March, 699,421 were temporary contracts, 39.6% less than in the same month of 2022.
In the first three months of the year, slightly more than 1.6 million indefinite contracts have been signed, 53.3% more than in the same period of 2022, and 1.96 million temporary contracts, 46.1% less.
Labour has stressed that these data confirm “the change in the contracting model” towards stable employment after one year of full force and effect of the labour reform, as although it came into force 15 months ago, the changes introduced in contracting came into force three months later.
UNEMPLOYMENT COVERAGE RATE RISES TO 68.1%
The Ministry has also reported that spending on unemployment benefits reached 1,952.7 million euros in February (the latest data available), 3.8% more than in the same month of 2022. The benefits paid since January this year incorporate the increase in the regulatory base to 60% from the seventh month, compared with the 50% percentage that had been applied since 2012 for the calculation of the benefit.
As a result, the average amount of contributory unemployment benefit rose by 7.3% in February, to 961.6 euros per month. The average monthly expenditure per beneficiary, not including the agricultural subsidy in Andalusia and Extremadura, amounted to 1,070.7 euros in February, which is 24.9 euros more than in the same month of 2022 (+2.4%).
The total number of unemployment benefit recipients stood at the end of the second month of the year at 1,863,952 people, 1.1% more than in February last year, with the coverage rate reaching 68.11%, its highest level in a February since 2012, according to Labour.
The benefits data always lag one month behind the unemployment data, so the Ministry has published this Tuesday the unemployment figures for March and the benefits statistics for February.
