Nearly 11,000 newly registered workers mark sharp rise in employment in Malaga in March
The unemployment rate experienced a modest drop of 764 people, partly explained by the seasonal fixed contracts
Malaga continues the spring and summer tradition of employment growth starting from March onwards. Last month saw an increase of almost 11,000 workers affiliated to Spain's social security system, which brings the total to 719,406 registered individuals - a figure never before recorded in that month. However, the province has not recorded as sharp a decrease in the number of unemployed people, which is mostly due to the common seasonal fixed contracts.
Huelva is the Andalusian province with the highest rate of employment rise. The province's strawberry production campaign has given jobs to 17,614 people. Nevertheless, Malaga is still responsible for 40% of employment created at a regional level. At a national level, only the Balearic Islands, Barcelona and Madrid surpassed its employment growth in March.
This strong growth contrasts with a much more moderate fall in unemployment. March closed with 120,331 people registered as unemployed in the province, which is 764 fewer than at the end of February. However, Malaga still achieved the most pronounced decrease in Andalucía. As a whole, the Andalusian region closed March with 1,252 fewer unemployed, which highlights Malaga's role in the drop even more.
There are four provinces where unemployment is up and four (led by Malaga) where it is down. This drop in unemployment is centred in the services sector. The rest of the sectors experienced minor variations: 100 fewer in industry, 46 more in construction and 5 more in agriculture.
Why doesn't unemployment drop more when employment grows so much?
The large gap between job creation and unemployment reduction can be explained by several reasons. One of them lies in the tourism sector, where seasonal permanent contracts are a common practice. These contracts mean that those employed in the sector during the high season do not register as unemployed in the autumn. When they return back to work in the spring, they are counted as new affiliates, which contributes to employment growth rates, without making a change to unemployment figures.
In addition, there are those who start to work in March without having been registered for unemploymen benefits with the social security system prior to that.
Last but not least, there are employees who come to Malaga for work, while being registered elsewhere.
Annual evolution
The annual evolution of unemployment and employment is very positive. Malaga has 22,436 more workers compared to this time last year, which is equivalent to a percentage growth of 3.22% - the highest in the whole of mainland Spain. Unemployment has fallen by 10,817 people, 8.25%.
Women account for more than half of the unemployment figures (61% of the total). There are 73,164 women compared to 47,167 men. This is despite the fact that the fall in unemployment over the last year has benefited more women (5,931) than men (4,886).
