Unemployment registered in the offices of public employment services in 2022 recorded a decrease of 268,252 people (-8.6%), to a total of 2,837,635 unemployed, the lowest figure in a year-end since 2007, according to figures released by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy on Tuesday, and reported by the Europa Press agency.
With the decline recorded in 2022, unemployment has now dropped for the second year in a row after the figure recorded in 2021, when it experienced a record fall of 782,232 owing to the end of the restrictions in place because of the pandemic.
The figure of 2.83 million unemployed that closed 2022 was reached after unemployment fell in December by 43,727 people compared to the previous month (-1.5%), its second best figure for the month of December since 2018, only being surpassed by that of 2021, when it fell by almost 77,000 people. This monthly decline makes it three consecutive months of drops.
In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment fell in December by 24,138 persons with respect to November.
Unemployment fell in all economic sectors last year, especially in services, where the number of unemployed was reduced by 171,212 over the year (-7.8%). This was followed by agriculture, with 32,278 fewer unemployed (-22.1%), and construction, which recorded a decrease of 30,829 unemployed (-11.9%).
All of the Autonomous Communities also saw unemployment fall in 2022, especially Madrid (-67,918 unemployed), Andalusia (-58,544), Valencia (-33,241), Catalonia (-22,820) and the Balearic Islands (-20,123). It was only in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla where unemployment actually rose, with, respectively, 4 and 753 more people out of work than in 2021.
As for hiring, 18,310,343 contracts were entered into in 2022, 5.5% less than in 2021 and 18.7% below the figure for 2019, in the absence of the pandemic. The ministry has stressed that this decline in hiring “is one of the expected effects, in terms of stability” following the implementation of the labour reform a year ago.
Looking only at the contracts made in the month of December, employment offices recorded 1,189,917 contracts, 29.2% less than in the same month of 2021. Of these, 464,152 were permanent contracts, more than double (+167.1%) the figure for December 2021.
Finally, the average number of Social Security affiliates ended 2022 at a new annual high of 20,296,271 contributors after gaining 471,360 employed people in the year (+2.4%), its second largest annual increase since 2018, when the system added 564,000 workers, the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration reported on Tuesday.
