Social Security adds 70,814 affiliates in December; 362,613 more than the pre-pandemic level

The number of people affiliated with the Social Security in seasonally-adjusted terms stood at 19,842,427 in December. This is the highest level of affiliation recorded in the series and exceeds the number of people employed in February 2020 - the month prior to the start of the COVID-19 health crisis - by 362,613.

In December, Social Security affiliation grew by 70,814 workers compared to the previous month (0.36% more), the largest increase in that month. This brings the number of consecutive months of increases to eight, adding a total of 822,802 more people employed to the system since May, and the pre-pandemic job creation trend has recovered.

Discounting seasonality and the calendar effect, there were increases in Services (78,871), Industry (4,511) and Construction (6,572). Industry has been growing consecutively in every month since June 2020, while Construction has been growing since February 2021 and Services since May last year. Agriculture lost 6,682 registered persons due to most of the agricultural campaigns ending.

The number of employees increased by 65,323 compared to November, while the number of non wage earners increased by 4,034. This group has been growing steadily for the last 14 months.

Growth of 777,000 jobs by 2021

Over the last twelve months, seasonally adjusted Social Security affiliation has increased by 777,160 persons. The largest increases have been recorded in activities that had the most restrictions at the start of the pandemic: artistic activities (up 14.1% compared to December 2020) and hotels and restaurants (up 13.8%).

Geographically, all provinces ended the year with an increase in the number of Social Security affiliates. In half of them, the growth in affiliation this year has been more than 4%.

Year-on-year growth

Over the last year and without seasonal adjustment, enrolment grew by 776,478 persons, representing an increase of 4.08% in the average number of workers. The sectors with the highest increases compared to the same month last year in the General System are Hotels and restaurants (17.77%), Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (16.24%) Information and Communications (8.78%) and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (6.84%).

In terms of territories, in the last twelve months, all autonomous communities saw increases in new employees. Of note is the increase in Social Security affiliation in the Canary Islands (6.43%), the Balearic Islands, where it grew by 5.52% and the Community of Madrid (4.97%).

Non official translation