Tourism employment rose 5.4% in December and 2023 ended with the highest number of contributors in the historical series

The number of national insurance contributors working in the tourism sector rose 5.4% (132,189 contributors) in December, compared to the same month in the previous year, to above 2.5 million, specifically 2,590,221. Tourism employment now accounts for 12.5% of total employment in the country's economy, which as a whole grew by 2.8% in this month (3.3% in the services sector). Compared to December 2019, the pre-pandemic benchmark, tourism employment growth was 8.1%.

The Minister for Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, said that this data exemplifies that "in Spain, temporary employment has fallen and wages have increased, which shows that, in tourism, as in many other sectors, we are creating a virtuous circle in which we are generating economic prosperity at the same time as extending labour rights".

Sector-wide growth

In December, the increase in employment in absolute terms was 132,189 new contributors compared to the same month in the previous year. This growth additionally affects all areas of tourism activity and all branches of the sector.

While in hotels and catering the growth was 79,163 contributors (19,243 in accommodation services and 59,920 in food and beverage services), in travel agencies and tour operators it reached 4,872. Other tourism activities also recorded an increase of 48,154 workers.

New increase of salaried employees

In December, the number of salaried employees in the tourism sector, which represents 80.9% of total contributing workers in this sector, increased by 6.4% compared to the same month last year. Self-employment in tourism, which represents 19.1% of the total number of contributing workers, increased by 1.1 %.

Jordi Hereu described these figures as "very encouraging", "in line with the Government's policies of continuing to transform our labour market with increasingly qualified jobs, with better working conditions, greater security and more professionalism".

The Canary Islands, the fastest growing

The end of the year was also a good month at a regional level. In December 2023, employment in hotels and catering and travel agencies/tour operators as a whole increased in all regions.

In relative terms, the year-on-year increases in the Canary Islands (up 6.4%), Andalusia and La Rioja (up 5.9% in both) and Madrid (up 5.7%) stand out.

In absolute figures, the largest increases in November were in Andalusia (16,569 more contributors), Madrid (13,505), Catalonia (11,484 more contributors), the Canary Islands (10,147 more contributors) and Valencia (with an increase of 10,089).

Non official translation