- The rate of employment fell 6.1% over the year and unemployment has risen to 18.83%
- The active population fell slightly to around 23 million people
Employment fell in the fourth quarter of the year by 6.1% compared with the same quarter of the previous year. The total number of people in work fell by 224,200 to 18,645,900. In the last year, employment fell by 1,210,800 people.
These figures clearly demonstrate the intense adjustment process experienced by the Spanish economy over the course of last year, which has resulted in a significant reduction to employment figures and an increase in unemployment over the last two years.
Active population numbers fell for the third consecutive quarter, after eight years of constant growth. The total fell by 21,000 people compared with the previous quarter to stand at 22,972,500. The rate of employment for the population between the ages of 16 and 64 years remains at 73.86%, 0.05% less than in the previous quarter but very close to the historic maximum recorded in the first quarter of 2009.
The deterioration of the labour market continues to affect men to a greater extent than women, similar to the situation in previous quarters; the inter-annual rate of employment among women fell by 3.65% while employment among men fell by 7.94% in the last year.
Compared with the third quarter of 2009, employment fell in all sectors except for agriculture, where it increased by 45,000 people. In inter-annual terms, both this sector (-2.64%) and the services sector (-3.25%) continue to record a shallower decline than the industrial sector (-11.89%) and, in particular, the construction sector, where the number of workers fell by 17.34% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008.
As regards the type of employment contract, 2009 continued to see the adjustment focus on temporary employment, which fell by 668,000 people or 14.67%, while indefinite employment fell by 147,500 or 1.25% (compared with the previous quarter, the number of employees with an indefinite contract rose by 2,300, after three quarters in decline). As a result, the temporary employment rate fell in 2009 to 25.1%, 2.8 points lower than at the end of 2008 and almost six points less than in 2007.
Unemployment rose in the fourth quarter by 203,200 people to a total figure of 4,326,500 or 18.83% of the active population.