Malaga, the third-placed province in Spain with highest rise in unemployment

The registered increase of 4,483 in January takes the total figure number of unemployed people to 140,000

NURIA TRIGUERO

MALAGA.

Thursday, 2 February 2023, 13:00

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January is one of the worst months of the year for the labour market, especially for provinces where summer tourism is particularly important, such as Malaga.

This yaer has been no exception. Over the past month, unemployment rose by 70,744 people in Spain as a whole and Malaga was the province with the third highest number of unemployed: 4,483, behind only Madrid (+11,140) and Seville (+5,139). In total, the unemployment figures for Malaga province closed January with 140,922 people on the register.

This rise responds to the traditional reasons why unemployment rises in January: the Christmas campaign contracts come to an end, tourism is at its lowest ebb and household consumption is suffering from the hangover of the festive season. On this occasion, there are added aggravating factors to the slowdown in the labour market: inflation and the rise in the Euribor. However, the rise in unemployment in Malaga province has been moderate compared to other years in the same month – it is slightly lower than last year (4,587).

Sectors hit

The services sector was the worst hit in January with 4,188 people out of work. Industry and agriculture experienced much smaller rises (of 178 and 109 people respectively), while the construction sector recorded 250 unemployed.

Last month there were on average 658,657 registered workers in Malaga province, which is 9,567 less than in the previous month. This is the largest fall recorded in Andalucía and the fifth largest in the whole country, behind Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante. It is also the sixth consecutive month of loss of social security contributors for Malaga province, which has seen 28,000 jobs lost since July 2022.

Despite the unwelcome figures in January and in recent months, the year-on-year unemployment balance in Malaga province continues to be positive. Between January 2022 and 2023 there were 15,219 fewer unemployed – a 9.7 per cent difference. In this period, Malaga province has led the reduction in unemployment in Andalucía in absolute numbers with 26,616 more registered workers than twelve months ago. The 4.2 per cent was the largest in the whole of mainland Spain.

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