Registered unemployment falls by 76,782 in December and ends 2021 with the lowest level in this month since 2007

The last month of 2021 ended with a fall in the total number of unemployed people in the offices of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) of 76,782 in relation to the previous month. In relative terms, unemployment fell by 2.41%. December therefore sets a new record by accumulating ten consecutive months of decreases, the longest period in the historical series in which the total fall in the number of unemployed people is 902,884.

Total registered unemployment stood at 3,105,905 people. This is the lowest December figure since 2007 and 140,142 fewer than at the start of the pandemic in February 2020.

With respect to December 2020, unemployment fell by 782,232 people (-20.12%).

In seasonally adjusted terms, registered unemployment fell by 40,832 people.

Unemployment by economic sector

By economic sector, registered unemployment fell by 64,809 people in Services (-2.88%), by 4,530 in Agriculture (-3.02%) and by 16,702 in Without Previous Employment (-6.13%).

It rises in Construction by 7,505 people (3.00%) and Industry by 1,754 (0.68%).

However, all sectors show a lower level of unemployment than the same month of the previous year.

Unemployment by sex

Unemployment fell, above all, among women, with 64,225 (-3.40%) fewer unemployed women than in November. The total stands at 1,824,032.

Since February, the number of women registered unemployed has fallen by 480,747. There are therefore 72,040 fewer women registered unemployed than at the beginning of the pandemic.

Male unemployment fell by 12,557 (-0.97%) to a total of 1,281,873 men registered with the public employment services.

Youth unemployment

Unemployment of young people under 25 fell in November by 22,848 people (-9.31%) compared with the previous month.

In the last ten months, it has accumulated a decrease of 143,809 people. Thus, unemployment among this group stands at 222,594 young people, closing the year with the lowest figure for a month of December in the entire historical series.

Unemployment by autonomous community

Registered unemployment in the last month of 2021 fell in 16 Autonomous Communities. The most significant falls were recorded in the Community of Madrid (-24,380), the Community of Valencia (-18,242) and Andalusia (-14,607).

In year-on-year terms, unemployment fell notably in all Autonomous Communities.

Recruitment

The total number of contracts registered in December was 1,681,550. This is a rise of 326,403 (24.09%) over the same month in 2020.

Cumulative recruitment in 2021 reached 19,384,359 with 3,441,298 more contracts (21.58%) than in the previous year.

In December 2021, 173,784 permanent employment contracts were registered, 10.33% of all contracts.

In cumulative terms, 2,113,341 contracts were signed in 2021. This represents an increase of 567,731 (36.73%) over the same period in 2020.

Permanent contracts in December are divided into 109,933 full-time and 63,851 part-time contracts in terms of the length of the working day.

The remaining contracts, to a total of 1,681,550 in December 2021, are 8,823 training contracts and 1,498,943 other types of temporary contracts. Within the latter group, of note is temporary contracts due to circumstances of production (full-time) at 29.10%, followed by contracts for specific work or services (full-time) at 25.87% of the total number of contracts. Part-time temporary contracts account for 29.59% of the total.

Benefits in November

At the end of the month, the total number of beneficiaries was 1,821,130.

Total expenses in November 2021 amounted to 1.849 billion euros, 23.9% less than in the same month the previous year.

The monthly amount of ERTE benefits in November was 117 million euros, a new low since the beginning of the pandemic.

In November 2021, the average monthly expenditure per beneficiary - excluding the agricultural subsidy in Andalusia and Extremadura - was 1043.2 euros.

Non official translation