The number of national insurance contributors accelerates in February and stands at over 21.4 million workers in seasonally adjusted terms

The number of national insurance contributors accelerated in February and stands at over 21.4 million workers (21,457,900), discounting seasonality and the calendar effect. This represents an increase of 500,551 employed people in the last year (+2.4%) and 58,735 more than in January.

The average number of contributors (original series) stood at 21,196,154, 100,340 more than in January, the second largest increase in a February since 2007. This is 487,773 more employed people than a year ago (+2.36%). Since the entry into force of the labour reform (2022), more than 1.6 million people have joined the Social Security system.

In a year-on-year comparison, most of the sectors of the General Regime gained contributors, with particular intensity in: Transport and Storage (+7.14%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (+5.45%), Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (+4.65%) and Real Estate Activities (+3.9%).

The number of self-employed workers, meanwhile, is close to 3.4 million (RETA and SETA), with 3,377,146 self-employed workers, an increase of 39,630 workers in the last year (+1.19%).

In the last year, self-employment in Information and Communications and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities has increased by 9.5% and 4.4%, respectively, with almost 22,000 more self-employed people registered in these two high value-added sectors.

8M analysis: narrowing the gender gap in employment

On the eve of 8M and focusing on the data on contributors by sex, we can see that progress has been made in reducing the gender gap. Female employment has grown by 14.2% since the entry into force of the labour reform, 3.2 points above that of men.

This month, the number of women national insurance contributors is above 10 million, which represents 47.3% of the total, an all-time high.

The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, stressed that "Spain is making progress in reducing the gender gap in the labour market: employment among women is growing more dynamically, and this has been accompanied by an increase in their contribution bases and job quality, with an increase of 4.4% in the number of female contributors with permanent contracts in the last year". Saiz stressed that this phenomenon "can be seen in most age groups and activity sectors, especially those with the highest added value".

In February, the proportion of self-employed women stood at 36.95%, the highest level in the historical series. This is due to the fact that, since 2021, almost 70% of the employment created in the RETA corresponds to women, with a growth rate of 6.8%, 5.1 points above that registered among the self-employed.

The favourable evolution of employment among women since 2019 has been accompanied by an improvement in their contribution bases, which have grown by 21.2%, 3.1 points higher than those of men.

In addition, there is an increasing presence of women in traditionally male-dominated sectors, such as Scientific and Technical Activities, where women now account for 50.7% of contributors. Specifically, in this activity, the number of women contributors has increased by 15.3% since the labour reform, and in Information and Communication, by 19.3%.

The increase in women's participation in the labour market is a reality. So much so that employment among women has risen in all age groups, with young women under 30 years of age standing out, with numbers up by 29.6% since the labour reform.

Higher employment growth than other major European economies

Returning to the general data, it should be noted that job creation in Spain (+8.7%) exceeds that of the major European countries (Italy, +5.4%; France, +1.9%; Germany, +1.6%) calculated from the end of 2021, before the entry into force of the labour reform.

In terms of the quality of employment since the start of the labour reform, there are over 3.7 million more workers with permanent contracts, an increase of 33.9% since 2022.

Not only are there more jobs, there is also a noticeable improvement in the quality of these jobs. There are currently more than 14.8 million people in employment with permanent contracts, of whom more than 9.8 million work full-time. The number of permanent-intermittent employees, however, has stabilised and they now account for only 4.8% of the total number of employees.

At the same time, the share of temporary workers is, for the first time, below 12% (11.9%). In February 2022, this percentage amounted to 26.3%.

Non official translation