BarcelonaThe labor market leaves the summer behind and reductions in unemployment encouraged by the boom in the tourist season turn into increases. Catalonia added 2,909 new unemployed people in October compared to September, bringing the total to 334,839, according to data published this Tuesday by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy. It is an intermonthly increase of 0.88%, although if we compare it with the same month in 2023, the number of unemployed people has dropped by 1.43%.
This was the general trend in the State as a whole in October, as the month ended with 26,769 more citizens registered with employment services, an increase of 1.04%. Currently, there are 2,602,054 unemployed in Spain and all the autonomous communities registered increases. In absolute terms, unemployment grew the most in Andalusia (+7,723 people), followed by Castilla-La Mancha (+3,859) and Catalonia (+2,909) in third place.
Even so, from the ministry managed by Yolanda Díaz they emphasize that this national upswing was lower than the average expected in the month of October and that in the last year, registered unemployment was cut by 157,350 people, a fact that represents a drop of 5.7%. This would be the biggest year-on-year reduction since September last year, while female unemployment would remain at its lowest level since 2008.
More job creation
It should be borne in mind, however, that despite the fact that unemployment is on the rise again, Catalonia continued to create employment in October. The volume of Social Security members added 15,658 new contributors, a rise of 0.41% similar to the previous month, according to the data provided this Tuesday by the Spanish ministry of the sector. So, in this latest update there were 3,802,849 employed Catalans, 88,177 more than a year ago.
In the same way, affiliation to Social Security also advanced in Spain as a whole, with 134,307 employed more than in September, an increase of 0.63%, and it was October with the highest volume of workers the entire historical series. There are now 21,332,513 employed people in the State, 514,856 more than there were exactly a year ago. In its statement, the ministry noted that in the daily series, 21.3 million members have been exceeded every day of the month minus one.
This boost is mainly explained by the education sector, which added 166,642 new members in a month when teacher hiring tends to accelerate. This represents an increase of 15.39% compared to September, while the hospitality industry is on the other side of the coin: it destroyed 48,106 jobs, with a drop of 2.99% in October. Health activities and social services also lost 37,090 jobs.
